I need your help guys. Since I have successfully managed to pass all the subjects at school, I'm getting a cheap Nintendo console as a birthday present! I'm supposed to buy it with with the money I have managed to gain over time. Still, I have to choose either one of the two, and they're both really cool, so I can't decide which one to get. The Wii right now is dirt cheap, and games are still being sold in the store. Problem is that it's pretty outdated as of now, so getting it may not be worth it anymore. The 2DS is also tempting to get. It's more up to date than the good ol' Wii, but there are absolutely no physical games around to buy, so I'd have to rely on the Eshop. And that's another problem, because the Eshop has this STUPID REGIONAL LOCKOUT that won't let me buy games online in an account from my country. Both options are pretty risky but it would take me a lot of time to save more money for anything else. What should I do here?

Tough choice! I don't have benchmarks on it or anything, but I bet that graphically, the 2DS is comparable to the Wii. Though the Wii is probably a lot cheaper, so you can get more games for it. The games are gonna be cheaper, too. Super Mario Galaxy, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Sports are some of my recommendations. If I were to get a Wii today, I'd probably also check out Red Steel 2 and some other games that took advantage of the Wii's motion control abilities. Proooobably steer clear of any ports or licensed games.

If you get an older run of the Wii, it'll be backwards compatible with Gamecube games. You'd have access to two entire console libraries.

If you can't get physical games for the 2DS, I'd definitely recommend the Wii. There's lots of good games for it, and you could play GCN games on it, too. If you don't have a GCN, definitely go with Wii.

But what about being up to date and all that?

I don't think you should be worried about being "up to date". Just treat games like books or movies. We don't stop enjoying the classics just because they're old. Both the GCN and Wii have a very strong library behind them. Pikmin, Sonic Colors, Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros, Twilight Princess, Luigi's Mansion, Sonic Adventure Battle 2...There are also some more obscure ones like Chibi-Robo, Zack and Wiki or Little King's Story. If you haven't played any of these you're seriously missing out!

The Wii can play GameCube games (though I've heard that newer models don't for some reason), so I'd say the wii as long as it is backwards compatible. The GameCube is probably my favorite Nintendo console, and the wii has some cool games too. It all depends on what you like though. Look at the games on each and see which you prefer. The 2DS also has the advantage of being portable. But if you like multiplayer, i feel like Home consoles are more engaging to play with friends than portables. Oh and also, you mentioned relying on eshop for 2DS games. That will fill up your SD really quickly. If you have to rely on digital downloads only, I'd say go with the wii for sure.

My family has both, so I'd go with the Wii because there's a ton of good games, it's compatible with the GameCube and it's very easy to install mods

[quote="littlelum"]My family has both, so I'd go with the Wii because there's a ton of good games, it's compatible with the GameCube and it's very easy to install mods[/quote] Yeah this is a great post. The modding capabilities are extremely useful, especially if you live in a country that Nintendo tends to overlook.

Idk. I thought that trying to mod it could end up bricking it or something. I may try it out.

[quote="Mr. Saltman"]Idk. I thought that trying to mod it could end up bricking it or something. I may try it out.[/quote] It technically can, but since it's kind of a thing that everybody does, I don't think it'll really happen unless you cut the power off while it's in the process of modding. I'm not 100% sure, so don't take that to mean that the risk is virtually nonexistent, but I know lots of people who modded their wii, and I've never heard of an actual case of bricking.

Also it has to be an older Wii, you can't mod the Wii Mini if I'm not mistaken. Don't know if they still sell the older style Wii's anywhere though unless you're looking second hand?

One of the better Wii mods is being able to run games off of an external hard drive, simply because the disc drive in the Wii isn't particularly long-lasting. The one in mine has deteriorated to the point where it is both slow-reading and loud as hell. Doing it wrong can "brick" your console, and by that I mean telling the mod installer you plan on pirating games makes it so you can't actually install that mod. On the flip side, I have a friend who heavily modded their 3DS. They did a lot of neat and cool things with it but they also scared the hell out of me because one of their "fake" channels wound up being their StreetPass Plaza game (making me fear Nintendo might actually hit me), and their 3DS also got actually bricked by a Nintendo update. I don't think you have to worry about the Wii's software updating anytime soon.

2DS can be easily hacked if you have a 8gb+ sd card, sd card reader and a computer And that means that you don't have to pay for games, but to pirate all the games in 3DS library along with emulators to play older games on the go.

Sorry buddy. I don't wanna be a pirate. I want to own an official copy of a Mario game at least once in my life.

3ds library is all jrpgs so unless you're big into shin megami tensei you want a wii

[quote="Mr. Saltman"]Sorry buddy. I don't wanna be a pirate. I want to own an official copy of a Mario game at least once in my life.[/quote] You can still buy games and pirate at the same time. Pirating games doesn't mean that you cannot buy games. :confused: Though, I've gotta say that pirating stuff saves you money by a huge margin, and gives you a chance to try out games before buying it. But fair enough, it's your choice after all.

This sounds like a very clear choice, being that you can't buy physical OR digital 2DS games, what can you do with it? I mean if you can buy games from online stores like Amazon(which likely the only way you can get GameCube games), it'd be different. In that case, you can also buy DS games for you 2DS if you didn't already have one, which also had it's masterpieces and are usually cheaper than Wii, Gamecube and 3DS games. The 2DS itself also has really good games like the Zelda games, the Kirby games, Mario Kart 7, Monster Hunter Generations, Donkey Kong Country Returns But-Without-Motion-Controls, Smash 4(only if you can't get the Wii U version), Pokemon X/Y/Sun/Moon, and also plenty of great indie games in portable form, too. I mean there are a lot of cool games to catch up with on the Wii and Gamecube, but you may also have to load down on extra accessories first like Memory Cards and Classic Controllers to fully enjoy them, wheres the 2DS is a lot more straight-forward. Basically, it's still a hard choice, but I recommend the 2DS if you don't care much for multiplayer and just want games that you can have fun with anytime without having to invest much into the system and/or don't have much time to sit in front of the TV. [i]BUT THIS IS ONLY IF YOU CAN ACTUALLY GET THE GAMES BECAUSE YOU MAKE IT SOUND IMPOSSIBLE O:[/i]

[font=Comic Sans MS]I would definitely go with the 2ds. I've always found Nintendo's portable devices to have stronger libraries and just be more fun overall. I think the Wii is the only Nintendo console I never owned, don't think the library for it was too strong for me.[/font]

Thanks guys, I think I'll go with the Wii. Hope it does not get discontinued any sooner.