Not to worry, fearless shopping warriors—the Wii can satisfy your shopping needs. The Wii Shop Channel (Figure 7.1) stands ready to satiate you with oodles of Virtual Console games designed not only to take you down memory lane, but also to entice you to get out your credit cards.
Because Nintendo takes shopping seriously enough to create a separate shopping channel, it behooves me to take a quick look at the various forms of buying you can accomplish with a Wii.
The Wii Shop Channel is included with the Wii and ready to go as soon as the device is powered up and connected to the Internet. As I mention in Chapter 3, this channel contains two main stores: Virtual Console and Wii Ware. Although the Virtual Console store is there to sell you a plethora of out-of-circulation games for the likes of the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16, the Wii Ware store is designed to be the portal to new Wii Channels as they are released.
Tradable currency in the Wii realm consists of special units called Wii Points. You can get these points in two ways: by purchasing a prepaid Wii Points Card from an electronics or gaming store, or by purchasing the points in the Wii Shop Channel with a credit card.
Wii Points Cards are available only in 2,000-point denominations for around $20 ($25 Canadian). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that each U.S. dollar is worth roughly 100 Wii Points, so a game that costs 500 Wii Points has a real-world cost of $5.
Note
Nintendo doesn’t plan to issue Wii Points Cards in any denomination other than 2,000 points—at least, not in North America. But 5,000-point cards are available in Japan, so perhaps different Wii Points Card denominations will appear over time.
If you purchased a Wii Points Card or got one as a gift, follow these steps to redeem it:
In the main Wii screen, click the Wii Shop Channel’s TV-screen icon to get into the Wii Shop Channel (Figure 7.2); then click Start Shopping.
Click the Add Wii Points button (Figure 7.3).
In the Add Wii Points screen, click Redeem Wii Points Card (Figure 7.4).
In the Redeem Wii Points Card screen, click the activation-number box (Figure 7.5).
You go to a screen with a numeric keypad where you can enter the Wii Points Card Activation Number. (This number is on the back of the Wii Points Card; to reveal it, scratch off the opaque plastic coating.)
To cash in your points, enter the activation number (Figure 7.6) and then click the OK button.
The other way to get Wii Points is to buy them in the Wii Shop Channel with your credit card and add the points to your account directly. To do this, first complete steps 1 and 2 of “Redeeming a Wii Points Card” to get to the Add Wii Points screen. Then follow these steps:
Click Buy Wii Points with a Credit Card (Figure 7.7).
You enter the Wii Points Purchase screen, where you can choose among point values ranging from 1,000 to 5,000. I’ll save you the trouble of doing the simple math: There’s no advantage to buying more points, because the cost is the same regardless. (Darn it!)
Pick the amount you want to buy and then click that button (Figure 7.8).
Choose your payment method (Figure 7.9): MasterCard or Visa (sorry, Amex and Discover).
In the next screen, enter the card number, expiration date, and security code (Figure 7.10).
Enter the abbreviation for the province or state you live in, plus your postal or zip code (Figure 7.11); then click OK.
In the Wii Points Purchase Confirmation screen, verify the number of points you’re purchasing, and confirm or cancel the purchase (Figure 7.12).
After authorizing the purchase, you get a screen that shows how many points you just purchased and your current point balance (Figure 7.13); click OK to close the screen.
The Virtual Console includes all kinds of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Nintendo 64 (N64), the Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx 16 systems. All these old systems run perfectly in emulation on the Wii, making it possible for you to enjoy these games just like you did 10 or even 20 years ago.
Whether you’re dying to get your hands on some old Genesis game that you used to love, or your kids are bugging the heck out of you to purchase some old Mario game from the SNES days (as my kids do), it probably won’t be long before you end up purchasing a Virtual Console title via the Wii. Make sure that you’ve got some Wii Points ready to spend, fire up the Wii Shop Channel, and follow these steps:
Click the Virtual Console button (Figure 7.14).
In the Virtual Console store, specify how you want to view the games: by system, by title in alphabetical order, or by date of addition to the store (which means that the newest additions to the store show up first).
For this exercise, click the Show Games from One Game System button (Figure 7.15).
Click the gaming system you want to find a game for (Figure 7.16).
The Wii Shop Channel displays a list of games.
Click the game that you want to see in more detail in the Details screen (Figure 7.17).
If you want to learn a lot more about the game, click the More Details button in the bottom-right corner; you get a highly detailed description of the game, complete with screen shots (Figure 7.18). When you’re done, click Back to return to the Details screen.
If you decide that you want the game, click the Download button in the Details screen.
In the Download Confirmation screen, click Yes to purchase and download the software (Figure 7.19).
After you click Yes, you move to the Download Software screen (Figure 7.20), where the download begins immediately. You get to watch either Mario or Luigi running across the screen picking up coins as the download proceeds. Downloads tend to take less than a minute with a high-speed connection.
When the download is complete, a confirmation screen shows you how many blocks of memory the game occupies and how many blocks remain for future storage, plus how many Wii Points you have left.
When you move to the Wii’s main screen, the game you purchased appears as one of the channels, as shown in Figure 7.21. To play the game, simply click its newly activated channel.
The Wii Ware store (Figure 7.22) is the place to download—and in some cases, purchase—new Wii Channels. At this writing, the Everybody Votes Channel is available free through the Wii Ware store, and so is the trial version of the Internet Channel. When the Internet Channel software is finalized and all features are in place, however, you’ll pay a small price to download the new version (probably 500 to 1,000 Wii Points, or $5 to $10).
Checking Your Account Activity
After you use your Wii Points a fair bit, and you get into the habit of adding points via a Wii Points Card or direct purchase, you should go to the Account Activity screen (Figure 7.23) to see exactly what has been going into and out of your account. This screen is a great way to see what you (and other members of your family) are buying with your money.
To get to the Account Activity screen, click the Account Activity button in the main screen of the Wii Shop Channel (refer to Figure 7.3 earlier in this chapter).
The Wii Shop Channel is a great place, but it carries a limited assortment of items. Heck, you can’t even buy Wii accessories there (yet). If you want to do serious online shopping, you need to head over to the Internet Channel and use the Opera browser to do your shopping, just as you would on your computer (Figure 7.24).
Online shopping with the Wii is simplicity itself. Simply find the product you want, select it, and enter your address and credit-card numbers; the seller gladly takes your money. A few days (or weeks) later, the product shows up in your mailbox, and everyone’s happy.
Tip
When you shop on the Internet, make sure that you are dealing with a reputable Web site, such as Amazon.com or Etsy.com. Always verify that your transaction is secure. (A small lock icon appears in secure transactions, and the words secure transaction usually appear as well.)