I was going through my monthly clean-out of my Yahoo email address I came across this tidbit from Gamespy:
From: Joseph
In a recent news article you mention that “530” gamecube games are playable on the Wii. Is this the entire cube library, or are there limitations to the backwards compatibility as with the Xbox 360?Li C. Kuo: I did a quick search on Nintendo’s official website and found a list of every GameCube game out so far. According to the website, there are 549 titles available for the GC right now. More are still being released. That’s a bit more than 530, however, Nintendo said “more than 530” GameCube games are playable on the Wii. We then asked Nintendo about this and were told that the Wii is “100 percent backwards compatible.”
The jury is still out on how much backwards compatibility actually matters, but it’s good to know I’ll still be able to break some necks with HUNK and RE4 Mercenaries.
This may be common knowledge, but it’s the first place I can remember seeing it in “print.” So there you go, future Wii owners — all your Gamecube games will work on your Wii.
Didn’t Nintendo say that the Wii was basically the same hardware as the GC? If so, then it makes total sense that they can claim 100% backwards compatibility.
mgroves – true, it is going to be similar, but the CPU and GPU won’t be exactly the same, so there will have to some software behind the scenes slowing down clocks and working with different amounts of memory, etc. Still, being similar to the GC should make things easier.
I’m not sure if it matters to anyone else, but this is actually a huge selling point for me. I didn’t pick up a Gamecube, so backwards compat on the Wii means I can pick up some of the GC games I missed out on like RE4. Oh, and I don’t have to use the garbage GC controller (but then, I actually liked the original huge Xbox controller).
Well George, your outa luck there, I’m pretty sure you have to use the GC controller for the GC games. BTW if you like the gaint xbox controller so much, I’ll trade you mine for a controller S….. I wish!
And Tony… STOP REMINDING ME OF HOW AWSOME RE4 IS!! My friend is borrowing it 🙁
P.S. Regarding RE4, did you ever get the handcannon? it took me a while, but I finaly did.
BC matters to guys like me who is actually holding out to get a Wii since he never got a GameCube. The 360’s lackluster BC is actually another red light for me getting one (and in actuality a red light to getting either Xbox … because I sure as hell don’t need two).
BC on the PlayStation 3 is less of a deal for me since I’m fairly willing to leave my PS2 library behind. It’s been faithful – but I’ve played it bunches.
I’m too glad that the Wii is backward compatible, and it can use cube controllers, i love it! My gamcube games will now always be in use! Huzzah!