Expert: Octane - 4/23/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have a Nintendo Wii, Wii fit, controllers, games and charger which I bought in the UK. I am moving to the US and would like to know if this or what parts of this system will work there. Thanks for your help.

ANSWER: Gday Lara,

Your UK Wii System will work in the USA.....But....

You would have to replace your power supply for the Wii and depending on how your charger for the remotes is hooked up maybe that.  (If it hooks straight up to the Wii or via the Wii's USB then you are good to go.  But if it plugs up to the wall you would have to replace that part.)  As the voltages are totally different from the UK (230 V 50Mhz) US (120 V 60 Mhz).

Depending on how you hook your Wii up to the TV with cables.  If you hook the Wii up via Composite Cables (Red, Yellow, White tips) this will not work because the UK Wii will output the signal in Pal and the USA TV's are NTSC.  You will be a B/W rolling signal on most US TV's.  You need a Converter for this signal (Which runs well over $100 USD).  If you connect you Wii up via a component cable to say a HD TV then providing you are hooking it up to a HD TV in the States then you will not have signal problem.

Your main 2 problems are going to be Games and Net access.  Any game brought with you will work fine but any new game you purchase will not work unless your Wii has been hacked or chipped.  USA games and UK systems are not compatible.  You would have to continue to buy PAL only games from the UK, Europe or Australia.  

The other problem would be Net access although you would be able to get on the net and it would behave like it would in the UK you would be restricted to only downloading UK released software because the Wii Bios is still set up to be UK machine.  Your News and Weather would be set to default of UK and not the USA.  You might also have to continue to buy Wii Points in the UK to purchase games.

I would probably just pack you remotes, Wii Fit board and get a USA system and games when you get here.  (Unless you have a chipped Wii or don't plan to get on the Net or are happy to import any game you want to play from the UK)

Hope this helps.

Octane

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How easy is it to hack the system? My husband has done this for our dvd etc? Once hacked, can you switch region or does it stay switched?
Thanks again!

Answer
Gday again Laura,

A Wii Modification is no quite as easy as a DVD Hack (Nothing simple like hitting a few keys on a remote).  As the Wii needs a Mod Chip installed which means ripping it to pieces and soldering in an extra piece of hardware.  You can also use a thing called a Freeloader disk (But you can only use this is your Wii is not connected to the internet.  There have been several software patches to the Wii which have disabled this from working anything past 3.2 update which was last year some time.)

The biggest 2 drawback to a Wii mod chip are it voids your warranty from Nintendo (Because you have preformed home surgery on it) and Nintendo have a habit of installing patches via the internet to your console that could make the modchip not workable.  (Again if you have never attached your Wii to the internet nor plan on ever doing it then a mod chip  or even a Freeloader disk would be the way to go.)

Usually once chipped the console will play games as if you purchased the console in whatever country you are in.  (Mind you it might still output a PAL signal if you you composite instead of Component cables)

Hope this helps you out again.

Octane