by Tim Yates


The Wii has fast become the world's most popular console, beating the sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360, despite not having the high-performance graphic chips of the latter two. Instead the Wii, with its motion control, targeted everyone from toddlers to pensioners. But if you are a Wii owner, you may wish the machine could do more, and that is why we would like to explain benefits to softmod Wii consoles, as this adds an entirely new dimension to this gaming system.

A softmod is basically using software to change how the console works, enabling some features and disabling others. So if you do this you are able to use third-party applications and channels like the Home-brew Channel, games, media players and much more.

When you turn on your Wii after installing the Home-brew Channel, it appears in your regular Wii menu as a channel like others you may already have. If you load it up, it allows you to run a whole new list of applications you many download and store on your SD card or USB drive.

When we talk about softmodding, the question of piracy comes up as the term is often thrown in with terms like jail-breaking, chipping or home-brewing, but that is not what it is all about. While you many be able to run game back-ups, it is expected that you do own the original disc, but this way you don't have to worry about your discs breaking, and you can even run the games directly off your USB drive.

Loading the games with this USB option makes many games run a lot smoother, and this feature also means you can access all your games from one source. It is great being able to switch between games without changing discs every time, especially because so many of the Wii games are quite quick party games.

Making the console a full media player is another great bonus. You can get programs to watch DVD's, listen to your favorite CD's or play video or audio files. You can find software that lets you download and read comic books or even listen to internet radio. If you live in one of the countries that has no official online store available it means you can also finally get some of things you are missing out on.

The list of home-made software to download and install on your Wii grows every day, and some of them are great fun and some are even very useful. Apart from the third-party games and game tools, there are things like a metronome for your Wii, web page browsers, magazine readers, recipe collections, alarm clocks and map systems. You are even able to turn your controller into a spirit-level for projects at home like hanging pictures, or you can make the whole thing a whiteboard and use the Wii mote as a pen.

Of course another great thing is being able to play many older games from previous platforms, with one of the many game emulators you can now use. It is not just old Nintendo games, but almost all of the older systems, even the original Playstation and some of the PC classic games. Returning to nostalgic games like the many Quest games by Sierra or the adventure classics like Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle, to name but a few, almost makes it worth it by itself.




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