Wii Freeloader Now Available!

Well guys, Datel has finally managed to do it. They have come out with a Wii Freeloader. If you don't know what that is, it is a boot disk that you stick in your Wii first and activate it like normal, then switch the disk out and put in a Wii game from a different region (like Japan or Europe/Australia) and your North American Wii system will be able to play the game despite the region restriction! It will also allow you to play Gamecube games from different regions, although some may not display right due to the signal output of the games being different.

However there is still always the possibility that Nintendo can block the device with a firmware update to the Wii. There are no worries about games that check your system for modchips or anything of the sort as the Wii Freeloader blocks these required "updates" enabling you to stick it to Nintendo for taking too long to release games in your country. You can check out the first review from our Aussie brothers over at Vooks.net here.

Currently the Wii Freeloader is only available from the Codejunkies website, and you'll want to make sure you get the one for your region's Wii, such as an NTSC Wii Freeloader for North America and a PAL Wii Freeloader for Europe/Australia. And you can buy one for the price of $20 in the US or £9.99 in the UK!

North American(NTSC) Wii Freeloader
European/Australian(PAL) Wii Freeloader

Siliconera has tried a Wii Freeloader on their Japanese Wii and it apparently works. One thing they mysteriously found is that when they stuck the US version of Trauma Center: New Blood in the Japanese Wii that the game converted to the Japanese version, meaning both versions are on the same disk. Hmm, I wonder if anyone has bothered just sticking the disk in the Japanese Wii without the Freeloader? You can see more here!

I have also created a Wikipedia page, so feel free to add to it if you know any other information that is importan to add. You can see the page here.

I'm sure this is just great news for all of you Europeans & Australians who are still waiting on Brawl. As for myself, I will probably only buy a Wii Freeloader if some game comes out in Japan that won't come to the US that I want, like certain music games. I imported Ouendan & Ouendan 2 for DS and loved them, so if iNiS puts something on the Wii that isn't coming to the US, I'll be getting myself a freeloader then. Happy importing!