[Wii] 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

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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:

Spoiler:

Pinball
Kirby's Adventure
Super Mario 64
LoZ: Ocarina of Time
Paper Mario
Yoshi's Story
Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 & 3
Golden Axe
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Sonic Spinball
Shining Force
Shining in the Darkness
Landstalker
Sonic 3D Blast

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Identity Crisis

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.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by scotty

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

There you go, Skills. MYSTERY NOT SOLVED.

Most amazing jew boots

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.

How ya doing, buddy?

At this point I'm just missing Max Biggs and Traumatized Rat's codes. They've had a week to post them, so if I don't have them by noon (my time) tomorrow, I'll have to D-Squallify them.

So far it seems I've been unable to send Skills a game, so I guess I'll have to segregate the Canadians. I still don't think it's impossible, and may have something to do with the fact that I got a new Wii (and a new code), but still had Skills on my friends list. It's too late to test further this year, though.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Sure, no problem Chaotic, but please put your number up ASAP. There's at least one person participating that needs to give/receive by Friday because they're going out of town. I'm still missing Max Biggs as well.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

PMs have been sent out, and the event is underway. Max Biggs has been removed from contention because I never got a number from him. Even if you don't send your gift right away, please enter the numbers you got as soon as you can so that your Secret Santa can send his gift to you. Let me know if anyone encounters problems.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Just to remind folks who weren't specific, you may want to list what original games you already have (not on Wii), so you don't end up with a bunch of stuff you already have.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Tritoch

Nutty's lame and will never see my Wii

I fear I would have nightmares if I did. One more reason Wii is lame compared to 360. If this were Xbox, you could just log into my 360 with your gamertag and download the games while you're here.

Additional Spam:
Haha, Skills just got the game I sent, which means I didn't have to segregate the Canadians after all. Oh well, next year we'll know, unless Nintendo closes the loophole.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I plan to send my stuff out tonight as well. I added the two codes to my Wii last night, but we all know how long it takes for friends lists to update.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Identity Crisis

I'm, uh, just as confused as you are. I'm glad that you liked the gifts, though! =)

No need to be confused. When I did the random selection, you ended up paired with each other. Since that would have been obvious if I sent you only one Wii number, I sent you both my number as a decoy, so you wouldn't figure it out right away.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yes, I could have done that. I just used a random number generator to spit out a sequence 1-9, then assigned those numbers to the list in the post 1-9. At any rate, there shouldn't be anymore confusion, because Tube and IC were the only people matched up with each other.

How ya doing, buddy?

No, that one's real. You should have gotten your gifts, as I sent them this evening.

Geez, I didn't think a fake code thrown in would cause so much confusion.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I was wondering if it was possible for anyone not to have played Kirby's Adventure, but I didn't see you mention that you had it. Glad you like your gifts!

I look forward to checking out what I got when I get home tonight; I didn't get a chance to look before work this morning.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I got Ninja Gaiden and Super Mario World from my secret santa. I've never played the former, and I'm always up for another run though Super Mario World (sup RockgamerXIII). Thanks!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

Rat tells me he still hasn't gotten his gifts.

According to the rules, his Santa has until Christmas to send the gifts, so I can't really say much right now.

On a somewhat related note, my Wii at least is really slow. I downloaded SMW and Ninja Gaiden last night, but I just got the accompanying message for Ninja Gaiden this morning. I never got a message for SMW at all. If I hadn't known to look in the Shopping Channel, I never would have seen the gifts. Gotta love the Nintendo online experience.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You could just go beat up Smelnick, if it would make you feel any better.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Traumatized Rat

So I've received parts one and two of my three part gift. I'll post what I ended up getting after I receive the last part.

Same here, actually. My santa mentioned he was sending a 3rd game, but I haven't seen it pop up yet. No big deal if he didn't, since the other two games he sent were over 1000 points, just thought I'd mention it in case there's a Wii failure somewhere.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Got my excellent third present from my Secret Santa this morning. Galaga '90 is as awesome as I thought it would be.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?