Ignoring the fact that local retailers have minimal or no time for the Wii on their shelves (My local Toys’R'Us has space for Wii games on the bottom row of one of their 5 shelves for games), I am utterly disgusted at the pricing of Wii games when taking into account PAL and NTSC imports. We’re being ripped off on a *lot* (not all) of titles!

Take for instance a couple of examples I came across at one of my favourite local online retailers Take 2. They’ve consistently managed to get imported games and DVDs at great prices. Compare these titles and prices (as at writing):

Resident Evil 4 Wii UK PAL – R477
Resident Evil 4 Wii US NTSC – R303
Eledees Wii UK PAL – R581
Elebits Wii US NTSC – R197
Mercury Meltdown Wii UK PAL – R659 (On special for R333)
Mercury Meltdown Wii US NTSC – R204

None of these titles seem to have local South-African launched versions (on Take2 anyway, I can’t see them anywhere else either, but I might be wrong?), and after looking at some other titles, it seems we do get some titles at cheaper prices than the import prices, but there are titles that are still cheaper to import than to buy the local version. Looking at the list above (I’m sure I can find more), the price difference is huge (I recall actually seeing the ResEvil4 NTSC version for R200 or so a few months back at Take2)

Now, the fact that NTSC titles are cheaper doesn’t help us PAL users, but then again, it does pose the question of whether it’s now worth it getting a Wii Modchip installed, to unlock the region locking on the Wii? Moral and legal issues aside, paying R800 to have a modchip fitted, is so worth it if I’ll be saving between R150 and R400 *per* *title* that I buy the NTSC version.

What’s a game-lover to do?

Me? I investigated modchip options for the Wii. Turns out there’s some differences between consoles and chips and chip versions and stuff. Wikipedia helped a lot with its list of Wii modchips page. I have a D2C chipset Wii (newer ones), and that limits my modchip options to one of four or so chips: D2Ckey, D2CPro, Argon, Infectus and the new Wasabi chip. After doing some serious research, turns out the Wasabi chip is likely to be the best, due it’s ease of firmware update, and the minimal number of wires needed to be soldered.

Not wanting to do the soldering onto the Wii board myself, I looked at alternatives, and found the Wii-Clip. It’s a device that allows you to solder the modchip onto the Wii-Clip, and then just pop the Wii-Clip-with-modchip-attached, over the necessary chip inside the Wii Console, so no actual soldering required inside the Wii. Sounds like the better solution to me!

And the cost? Well, having the D2CKey fitted locally will cost R1000, due to the kabillion wires that needs soldering on the Wii.
Compare that to: US$39 (About R310) for the Wii-Clip V5 (Wasabi version) from www.ic2005.com with Free Shipping, and the actual Wasabi chip for about US$55 (about R435) on just about any of the Wasabi modchip reseller site (I’m sure there are many of them that do Free Shipping too.) So that makes R750 or so for a non-destructive modchip for the Wii, that will allow me to play US import games.

Sorted.
Decided.
Ordering.