Virtual Console Secret Santa!
 

Just in time for Christmas, Nintendo has updated the Wii Shopping Channel to include a gifting feature. As long as you and a friend have exchanged codes, you can purchase virtual console games for anyone on your friends list, as long as they live in the same region. There’s no better way to test out this feature than to have a GFF/Wii Secret Santa exchange!

Right now gifting is only available in Japan and NA, but with luck it will launch in PAL territory this Friday (not that there’s anything official to indicate that, but I’m hopeful, and we’ve got 2 weeks until Christmas). Since gifting is region-locked, I’ll pair up people from the same regions, and if it launches in PAL-land before Christmas, they’ll be able to join in (PAL folks should go ahead and sign up now).

How this will work:

• Participants must be at least level 10 to join, though I reserve the right to Squallify or D-Squallify on an individual basis. If you’re an upstanding community member but not level 10, feel free to sign up.
• When you sign up, post your Wii friend code in this thread, or PM it to me. Also post what region you live in.
• If you want, post types of games you like (don’t mention a specific game you want, though, because that spoils the surprise), and any games you absolutely do NOT want to receive. There’s no need to post what you already have, since Nintendo won’t let you gift something your friend has.
• Spend at least 1000 points but no more than 2000 points. This means you can buy one or two expensive games, or a bunch of NES games; it’s up to you.
• When sign-ups close, I’ll PM each participant 2 friend codes to add to their Wii. The first code will be the person they’re receiving a gift from, and the second code will be the person they’re buying a gift for.

For now, I plan to close sign-ups in one week (12/18). If there are still folks signing up at that point, I might extend it another day or so, but that probably won’t be necessary. Once sign-ups close, I’ll PM out the information, and participants will have through Christmas Day to send their gifts.

Participants:
1. Tritoch
2. Omnislash124
3. Avalokiteshvara/Radez
4. nuttyturnip
5. AcerBandit
6. Identity Crisis
7. Tube
8. Max Biggs
9. Scotty - C
10. Colonel Skills - C
11. Summonmaster - C
12. nazpyro
13. Rat - C
14. Chaotic

[on second thought, money is a bit more tight than I was anticipating, sorry!]

I'm still in. I've been looking for this thread in Community Commons. Where are all the other people who agreed to this idea already?

Sounds interesting....Sign me up....er....that is once I get back to my Wii and find out what my friend code is.

I'm in, you know, provided I meet level caps and what not. =o

Sweet, I do!

Regarding game preferences, I can't really say. Part of the appeal of the vc is that I can try out shit that I never played before, for little cost. I've also been in a nice retro mood, so I'm even enjoying the shit I played way back when. Mario, for instance, is kind of like riding a bike.

Woops, I forgot to post all of the things the OP asked for!

Friend Code: 7718 5677 8179 7406

- I'm a fan of RPGs and platformers mostly, but please don't send me Sonic since I already own the Mega Collection on Gamecube. Also, I already have Paper Mario for N64 and Zelda: Link to the Past for SNES, so I don't want them.

- I don't want any sports or pinball games.

I like how almost none of the folks who commented in my journal have signed up here. Anyway, here's my own info.

Likes: Platformers, RPGs/Action RPGs (I've had my eye on several of them, but haven't bought any), Puzzle

Dislikes: Sports, Fighting, anything available on XBLA

Titles I own in real life (not on VC) that there's no point in buying for me:

I'm totally in. When I get home I'll go look up my Wii code. I AM OF THE U S OF A TYPE O GUY.

I'd like to say that I'm in, but you'll need to give me a day or two to move back in to my house and check on its internet capabilities.

Also, all of my games are back there, and I'd like to make a checklist of VC games that I already own. I'll edit this post accordingly once I move in.

EDIT:

No problem. I don't need your Wii code right this minute, and it's not necessary to post a list of VC games you own. If you try to purchase a game for someone that they already have, the shopping channel kicks you back to the menu to select something else.

I'll go ahead and mark you as participating for now.

Sweet, I'm in on this one.

Friend Code:

Cool Stuff To Get:

VC Games I already own:

Things I don't want:

Special Thanks To:


I don't plan on fully pushing the $20 limit so don't spend more than $10-15 for mine so I don't feel guilty.

I actually meant the games that I own hard copies of, not the game (yep, singular) on my Wii. Sorry if I was unclear about that.

This sounds like cool beans to me; sign me up. I'm at work right now so I don't have my Wii friend code on me, but I'll update this post with it sometime today. Just to let my future Secret Santa know, I only plan on spending $13-$16 on you, so please don't do differently for me. ^_^

I live in the U.S., and aside from puzzle and sports games, I really don't care what genre the game is. The service should let you know what I already have on my Wii, but some other games I own that aren't on my Wii are Super Metroid, Super Mario World, and Pokemon Snap. Everything else I either don't own, or I wouldn't mind owning again. =)

I'm in, sounds fun.

I already own the original F-Zero X, multiple copies of Ocarina of Time , and Mario All Stars with Super Mario World.

I like side scrolling shooters like Gradius and pretty well anything except for sports.

Man, great idea. Didn't see this earlier, thanks for pointing it out Tube. In so bad.

Friend Code:


Great ideas:


Other good ideas:


Things I already own:


Bad ideas:

Region? Phew! I thought that "different countries" in the update meant Canada and US weren't allowed to exchange with each other.

In.






Now updating post with quality info...

Not region-locked, but country-locked? The Wii just got gayer.

Source

On the plus side, that article says the feature is now available in Europe.

Not a big deal; I'll just have to sort out who's American and who's from Frappe Snowland.

Oh, FUCK that, then.

I think that means Summonmaster and me would have to get each other, and where's the secret in that?

I'm opting out if this is the case. Where's the fun in knowing who got you? Bah.

So? It's not like it's hard to figure out who got you, since you have to input their code, and you could look that up. Besides, when you get the games, your Wii probably says something like "SUMMONMASTER sent you a VC game".

Just get another Canandian or two to sign up.

Ah, thread is here. Thanks Nut-T. /signup

I'm also Canadian, not that it helps much.

There you go, Skills. MYSTERY NOT SOLVED.

I'd like to sign up as well. I'm in NA land and I'll edit this post later with the list of games I have as well as my friend code.

I know off the top I have Gunstar Heroes, Mario 64, Paper Mario, F Zero X, and some other Genesis strategy RPG. I'll also have to check my library since I have hard copies of many of the VC games on my other consoles. I'd say a safe bet for me would most likely be a genesis game. (I have the sonic mega collection for Gamecube though which means I must own a Gamecube to play that game on, and by extention, Gamecube controllers which are also compatible with a Wii. =/)

Do have


Do want

I believe I've solved the US/Canada problem, and I used Skills as a guinea pig. If you live in the US and you try to send something to a person in Canada, you get an error message. HOWEVER, if you go into your console settings and change your country to match, it lets you send. I changed my country to Canada, and was able to send Skills a game. At least, I sent it without any error message, and now I'm just waiting for it to pop up on Skills' machine.

So, once we get started, the Canadian folks will need to change their Wiis over to US temporarily, in order to send/receive their gift. When I changed to Canada and re-entered the shopping channel, I got a warning that I had recently changed countries, and that may interfere with pending gifts, so I think it's best if we all stick to one country.