Ugh. Here's a day I've been dreading. The day I'd be forced to clean out my virtual mini-fridge (as Nintendo seems to like to put it) which I like to call my Wii. I knew I'd fill up my internal flash storage eventually and was pretty sure it would come at around WiiWare time, but it was still really hard to come to terms with the fact that if I wanted one of my two anticipated WiiWare titles I would need to do a little reorganizing.

I haven't downloaded anything just yet, but noticing my Wii memory dwindling down around 180 blocks I started wondering if I would have room for either LostWinds or Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: My Life as a King should I have chosen to download either one (still not decided on which I'll be getting). Imagine my horror when I discover that LostWinds would take up 259 blocks and Final Fantasy 287. I swallowed my pride and cursed something about 512 megabytes under my breath and went to free up a few blocks.

The first thing I looked at was game saves I'd no longer be needing and moved those to my very spacious SD card. It was mostly rentals and crap (aka Wii Play) saves, but being files that averaged only 2 blocks I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere fast with only game saves. The next logical step was to move onto channels and Virtual Console games (and I also want to take this time to ask why the hell am I not allowed to remove the Forecast and News channels? I'm sure that they take up at least 125 blocks together).

This is when I started to wonder just how strained for blocks I'd be if I hadn't already deleted Mario Kart 64 the week before since the Nintendo Channel had just been added. I decided not to think about that regrettable purchase and looked admiringly over at Mario Kart Wii to forget about it. With still only about 190 blocks free I had to make a decision on what could stay and what had to go. Deleting the Nintendo Channel wasn't originally planned but I realized that since my terrible internet connection made it impossible to stream the videos anyways there was really no reason for me to keep it and away it went to my SD card, relieving me of 123 blocks.

The Everybody Votes and Check Mii Out Channels were already long gone (along with their little save files) but you can be sure that they would've been the first go. The only other non-VC game channel I had left was the Internet Channel and after a little time spent mulling it over I figured I'd keep it since it did come in handy for a little quick and convenient web browsing here and there.

I looked over my Virtual Console line up and drew up the pros and cons of each game. Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and Super Metroid still sit a little over half finished so they would stay. While I haven't touched Star Fox 64 or Sin & Punishment in a while, their place as easy to pick up and play arcadey shooters cemented their position in my Wii Menu. This left Wave Race 64, which in the end unimpressed me and could easily go up onto my list of regrettable purchases right next to Mario Kart 64, Red Steel, and Endless Ocean. It was a quick decision and all of a sudden I had another 94 blocks open to me while still feeling a little angry that I wasn't allowed to move my 34 block Endless Ocean save file away.

With that my memory ordeal was over as I walked away with a sense of relief in now having 417 blocks free and a sense of disgust in the pit of my stomach. I knew that as soon as I download one or two more games I will be back at square one, and this game of storage Tetris will begin anew. Whatever form of external storage I'm convinced Nintendo has planned can't come soon enough.

It begs the question, why hasn't Nintendo responded any sooner to a problem that's been staring them and Wii owners in the face and one that was clearly evident, even from launch? Satoru Iwata's recent comments seem to suggest that this is something Nintendo wasn't even aware of until recently, and his choice of words in referring to Wii's "most avid players" as "a small number of people" certainly isn't encouraging. I'm sure that Joe Casual over there enjoying Wii Sports and now Wii Fit is probably entirely oblivious to how much his system can hold, but there's a large number of us avid players who watch our number of blocks shrink faster than your self respect while watching a Uwe Boll movie.

Taking that Iwata has acknowledged that there is indeed a problem and all this secrecy Nintendo has suddenly gone into leading up to E3, I'm 99.9% convinced that we'll be seeing some sort of external Wii memory at the event. It will frankly be incredibly overdue but appreciated none the less so long as the price is right. I've already bought your console, so don't expect me to be willing to pay anymore than $20 for a reasonable amount of memory which should be somewhere in the 8 GB range if you were to ask me considering the original Xbox had just as much. Is that really so much to ask?

So congratulations Nintendo, you've finally broken me. I'm practically begging on my knees for something to be done. It is a pitiful sight to be sure, but there doesn't seem to be any other way out right now as Nintendo seems to have been ignoring its hardcore audience. Say what you will, but there is no denying the fact that every hardcore Wii user out there must feel at least a little bit alienated and unappreciated.

Now wouldn't this just be amazing?

Do something Nintendo, and do it fast. Here, you can even take my idea of an external USB drive in the shape of a Wii stand (above), and I won't care one bit. If anything, I'll just be overjoyed.

If Nintendo plans for the recently released WiiWare to be successful, then the diminutive flash memory seems to be their largest obstacle as I can't see very many people being happy with the service, their console, or the company as it stands right now. Should they not choose to reveal some sort of external storage at E3, it will be an incredible letdown and would even diminish my interest in WiiWare and any downloadable content in general.

Written by:  Marko K.

This post was last modified: 05-16-2008 01:25 PM by D4rk.

Hard drive ftw
and i agree that they need a hard drive if they want to make WiiWare a victory

I totally agree with you, although I think I still have a lot more room on my Wii because I have deleted all my VC games and transfered all my game saved and channels to my SD card, which isn't much because I only have 8 Wii games and 3 GC games, so I guess I still have room, but I can't check for sure because my parents are being a$$ right now and won't let me on my Wii till thursday because of some stupid reason.

I'm not so sure that Nintendo will do anything about this though, at least not much, maybe they'll make it so the Wii can read saved files from SD/USB without having to trnsfer to your Wii first.

And it makes you wonder what the hell 360/PS3 owners would do if their console only had 512mb, I think they'd panic, and it's not like even the 360 or PS3 can have less than 10GB because of the stuff that comes with them in the first place!

Come on Nintendo, Wii stand hard drive FTW!

They wouldn't panic because their console just wouldn't work, especially with the PS3 where games are installed.

And I see now that the reason why I've filled up so quickly is because most of my VC games are the larger N64 ones.

Yea, but really, you get get classic consoles and games on ebay, if you really want to play them, most people when they buy VC games so far that I've seen, they just collect virta-dust.

This just stinks. If they have something awesome like wii ware, and then have huge block amounts with no hard drive. I think I read somewhere where someone added up the total blocks of all 6 wii ware games, and it was over 1000 blocks.

Oh, then maybe I have my Wii filled up more than I thought.

Defend Your Castle: 121 blocks
My Life as a King: 287 blocks
LostWinds: 258 blocks
Pop: 110 blocks
TV Show King: 290 blocks
VIP Casino Blackjack: 207 blocks

Total: 1273 blocks

yeah, and what is the total memory a wii has? it can't be more than 2000

I fear the day I have to do this.

Actually, I think it's 3000

Don't quote me on that though.

Either way, I couldn't care less. I'll just delete old VC games no sweat. You can download them for free at any time after you've paid for them once, so no worries about that, just redownload them again when you want to play them.

And no, I disagree; I am a hardcore gamer and I feel in no way alienated. I DO feel like people complain too much about simple little things, however. -_-

When you delete and then redownload do you have the same data. Or do you have to start all over again.

Every VC and WiiWare game has a save file like any other Wii game.

Yup, so as long as you just delete the game and not the save data, you'll be fine.

Ohh okay.
Well then thats no biggy.

I currently have 1087 blocks left, so no worries for me

lmfao

While I still don't see it as a necessity, I have to admit that that's pretty amazing =D

I figured I'd be on the top but was surprised that I wasn't. I guess I have a lot more stuff on there then I realized. Great article by the way and I loved every minute of it. Now give us hdd Nintendo!

So now that I've gotten both My Life as a King and LostWinds I'm back down around 130 blocks, after being forced to part with another Virtual Console game, Pokemon Snap.

I also didn't realize how many blocks the Smash Bros. save file takes up (128!). The save file alone larger than some N64 games.

I had to clean out my Wii fridge as well. But I was down to 600 blocks before I did it and now I'm back up to 1000+ so it's no biggy for me.