The SD Storage Solution on Wii: Impressions

So I’m sure many Wii owners have already tried the new SD storage solution for the Wii, as it’s been available since last Wednesday. Still, in my last post, I said I’d post impressions of the new feature, so here they are.

Overall, it’s pretty simple. Since the Wii Menu update to 4.0 last week, there is now a small SD Card icon in the bottom left of the Wii Menu. Click on it, and it takes you to the SD Card, where you can store various channels (like games). I immediately went to the Wii Shop Channel and downloaded all the games that I have had to delete due to space limitations (and there were quite a few), which I thought would be a daunting task. Then I finally saw the “Titles You’ve Downloaded” icon on the Main Wii Shop Menu (blame my ADD) and I had them all again in a flash. I also of course downloaded Super Punch-Out!!, which came out today, and had to fit that on my card because of space limitations.

There’s one hitch. You need to have available Wii system memory to boot up games off of the SD Card. It’s like the games don’t load off the SD Cards themselves, but get transferred to the Wii. So if your Wii system memory is already jam packed, you can’t load any games off the SD Card. A simple solution is available however; just move more games to the SD Card to free up some system memory. You can have the Wii do this automatically for you. Easy peasy!

I loaded up a few games off the card, and even the biggest games (N64) loaded within 10-13 seconds. Piece of cake! This storage solution addresses the long running problem of not having enough room for all your channels/games on your Wii. On other systems, you can opt to buy a bigger hard drive or something, but up until now, Wii has had nothing like this. It’s great now that it does, and moreover, it’s free (provided you already have an SD Card). One word of warning: I’ve read reports that clicking the SD Card icon without an SD Card inserted can create problems, like system lock up. Hats off to Nintendo for finally addressing the problem and making it easier and better than I at least imagined it would be.

Max