Hmm, I guess I need to do this too. I'll post mine when I get a chance.

What does adding friend codes do exactly?

Does anyone else see graphical corruption after the previous (the one that added News) update? As most of you guys know, I used to work for ATI, so I know graphics corruption when I see it. Something is wrong with this box. Engine or memory clocks for the graphics are either tweaked and causing it or there's some bad ram in the unit.

While on the main Wii screen on many other light coloured screens, I can easily see glittering vertical bars at random locations on the screen. They vary a little bit in height and width, but mostly less than pencil thin on a 32" 4:3 TV and about 1-2" tall. By glittering I mean they sometimes have that 'Predator' effect to them because they're made of up similar colours to the background they appear on. Not something like black on white to make it completely obvious.

I believe they started right after the Wii update for News and the recent update for Voting didn't fix it. I've even powered down the system (unplugged) for a few minutes with no change when booted back up again. At this time I think I'll have to get it replaced...

I'll try to take a picture of an instance that's very prounounced.

Speaking of problems, did you ever resolve your problem where the pointer was very jittery? I seem to be having the same problem, and the only lights on in the room are the TV itself and one incandescent light. (Well, and, I guess, some LEDs and whatnot on my AV equipment.)

For the most part right now, sharing friend codes is just for populating your Mii parade, and sending messages between people, but the network games will be out soon, and it's the only way to find people to play.

My favorite UI issue is that terrible, poorly kerned serif font that you see in every Japanese document that needs to incorporate the Latin alphabet.

The pointer jitter is not perfect, but it's a lot better. It just seemed to get better as time went on - which is VERY strange. I used the bar below the TV for a little while but when that started getting better I moved it to the to and changed the configuration.

A couple of times I've had to go and play with the sensitivity when it has acted up. Don't know why because nothing in the room had changed from when it was working better. Right now it seems to be pretty decent and in Zelda it was always a lot better than when using the Wii UI.

I haven't played anything in at least 3 weeks though. The last time I made an adjustment to the sensitivity was when my brother was over and had a really hard time in Wii sports because the pointer was just going all over the place.

Bruno

Overheating sounds like a possible cause for this type of corruption. But in my case it would have to have been the heat that made a permanent fault. It happens even if the unit has been unplugged for some time.

I finished Zelda with 96 hours of play in 2 weeks, so it's strange it didn't overheat then. But I suppose at that time it's also protected by a fan...

I've heard good things about Nintendo customer support. I suppose I'm going to have to find out about this for myself. I'm just sorry I'll lose my Wii code and have to re-add everyone.

Bruno

I think they can transfer your Wii number over to your new unit but only if you send it in for repair. If you just get a new one shipped to you as a replacement then it will have a new Wii number.

That's the exact corruption I was mentioning. No question about it.

Now what's this about a 90 day warranty? I thought it was 1 year... I guess I should act quickly and not sit on this.

But now that I think back, I did register my Wii for a 90 day extension, so that would put my warranty at 180 days on the short end or 1 year and 3 months on the long. Just have to find out what the original warranty length is now...

Bruno

tonyc: 6582 2420 7669 9428

Just added the master list to the first post. Any moderator/admin should be able to add to it as more numbers are posted. Let me know if the list is missing someone.

Different region Wii numbers can be used together

Thanks, Tom.

I'm really liking the Wii so far. Monkey Ball is a blast!

Has anyone played around with the various hacks for streaming music/video to a Wii? I've seen a couple of them (Orb, Red Kawa Media Center) that require you to transcode your videos to FLV in advance, which seems like a hassle. I also found WiiCR, which claims to do the transcode on demand, but requires you to install a full XAMPP stack just to run (I tried to install in my existing Apache server but it seems to have a lot of hard-coded paths and so forth which made things difficult.) Are any of these worth the hassle? Are there any better streaming video solutions?

WiiCR isn't really worth it. Takes forever to start streaming. I played with it way back when he first released it, though.

If anyone cares, I just got SSX Blur. It is HARD on the Wii, and this is all about the control scheme. The graphics are fantastic, much better than SSX3 for the gamecube, though a lot of the tracks are the same.

Most of the reviews complained about Ubers being hard to pull off; however, I don't think this is much of an issue. I don't find them THAT hard, though they are a little more effort than "mash the trigger and press up-right"- this seems fairly reasonable to me. If I take my time I can nail them consistently, but I have to be paying attention to what I'm doing. It makes sense to me that pulling off big stunts should take a little bit of effort.

Regular tricks, however, seem more difficult than they should be. Often I'll feel like I'm flicking the remote properly and my character just doesn't do anything (though I had this problem with button mashing in SSX3 as well). I haven't quite figured out how to combine board grabs with spins/flips- I think you have to start the spin/flip before grabbing the board, which means you have to really pay attention to the order of things. This kind of leads to feeling like I don't have much much control over what I'm doing in the air.

Even more problematic is landing tricks, whatever you do. In this version you now have to align your body before you hit the ground, and so often, especially on the pipes, I'll do some trick and then wipe out either because I'm accidentally tilting the character by pushing on the control stick or because I'm not doing anything at all and he needs to be lined up. Also, in the previous versions you would hold down the button to keep spinning/flipping and then release to stop- in this version you hit the "A" button to stop, completely the opposite from previous SSX games (which makes sense, because how would it know to keep going/stop when you initiate a trick by flipping your wrist?). The problem is that sometimes I'll hit "A" twice and for whatever reason the character will misalign and crash. Landing seems unnaturally hard.

Carving is brilliant, if a little difficult to get used to. Rather than controlling with the stick, as is the natural inclination, you have to tilt the nunchuck. This was annoying and first and took me a while to get used to. Now that I have, it is a LOT of fun- feels a lot more like I'm snowboarding, swaying this way and that. Is it more efficient than just using the stick (which you can configure to do)? probably not. But it IS more fun.

The new soundtrack thing is pretty cool. They aren't using licensed music anymore, which I DID enjoy on SSX3, but the new concept is pretty cool. Each tune has 5 layered tracks that can be overlayed to add intensity. As you preform well, more tracks get added to make the music kind of stay in sync with how you're doing. The idea is when you find your "groove", the music does too. This works out well and I like the effect.

Overall, I think once I get used to the trick system and get better at it I'll really enjoy this game. For the the moment I'm enjoying the races a lot, enjoying the slopestyle somewhat, and dreading the half pipes. I haven't tried the new slalom yet, but I've heard it's hard. I honestly prefer games to be playable right out of the box, but there's enough fun here that I think it's worth it. I probably give it a 7 out of 10.

Pros:
Great Graphics
Carving is fun
Fun, layered Soundtrack
Ubers take some effort to pull of, and are rewarding when you do

Cons:
The trick system is difficult and pulls away from the "fun" factor
Repeat courses from SSX3

Thanks for the review! I was thinking of picking this one up tonight. I've always been a huge fan of the SSX games, and I'll be curious to see if this control scheme just frustrates me

Have any of you Wii owners had a hard time getting classic controllers? I reserved one with my system for launch day, but the EB Games where I reserved didn't have any classic controllers at launch. Since then it's been a complete guessing game. Up until last week they refused to set one aside for me in any of their shipments, despite the fact that I'd already put money down. Fortunately they got a new manager last week who was extremely helpful and agreed to set one aside when they got more in. I wouldn't care, except that it's difficult to play some of the VC titles with the Gamecube controller (and I've already given them $10 toward the purchase). I wish they had envisioned a way to remap the controls for those games.

For those still not using rechargeable batteries, I just noticed this while shopping on Amazon. Don't know anything about it, but figured I'd share the link.

Every store I've ever been to while looking for a Wii always had stock of classic controllers: Best Buy, TRU, EBGames, Future Shop, Walmart, etc...

What I had never seen were the standard controllers (and Nunchuk) and finally just decided to order directly from Nintendo. It was the same price everyone else would be selling for, pus $7 Canadian for shipping.

Bruno

I stopped into a local Target to look for an extra remote and nunchuck, but there were none to be had. There was, however, a lonely classic controller, and I grabbed it.

This Wii tracker seems to show the classic controller being available at a bunch of stores here. Punch in your ZIP and see what it says.

Did you guys also get Wii play? I got a controller with that and bought another on ebay slightly used. Then my brother in law (who I live with) also got a Wii so we now have 4 remotes and two nunchucks in the house.

Also, I have a classic controller that my wife bought me for Christmas, but thus far have had no need for it. The only VC game I've bought so far is Super Mario Bros., and the only other one I plan on purchasing is Zelda. I still have an N64 hooked up to the TV along with Mario 64, Ocarina, and Mario Cart 64, and I'm not really sure if there are any other 64 games I'd want.

Dignan, if you get hard up looking for the classic controller I'm sure we could work something out at cost (unless my wife would be upset over me selling something she bought me as a present).