Nathan Linscott 2007-03-19

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

ok so this praticular sd is basically useless( unless you plan on sending your wii to nintendo to be fixed with a generic sd card still in it[voided warranty with generic stuff]) however you NEED an SD card for 1 incredibly important reason...

wiisave dot com!!!!!!!!

Almost every game 100% completed for you to download and enjoy the multi player fun of everything unlocked. Multi player mode in excite, rampage, super swing, woods, ssx and more have become tons more fun without hundreds of gaming hours put in. And you NEED an sd card to download this stuff.
Don't get this, but get a sd card for sure, amazon's got them cheap. $10 1gig

Sean 2007-01-04

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

Before reading the review, please understand that this is being reviewed by a gamer who had the intent on using this as a memory card. As far as SD cards go, they're really useful. The fact that you can put photos, music, etc. on here and transfer it to your Wii or other computers is beautiful, however, as a memory card (and this says "For the Wii," which is why it is reviewed as such) it fails in its purpose. A standard SD card is a much better investment.

The Wii comes built in with 512 MB of Flash Memory. For the casual gamer, this may be enough to satisfy your needs. For the hardcore gamer, and one who plans on going through with a lot of the Wii's downloads, this SD Card is almost useless. For more reasons than one.

For starters, the only thing this card can be used for is backup. Nothing more. Nothing less. I purchased an SD memory card so that I wouldn't have to lug my entire system off to a friends house in order to play games. It was effective, but not entirely in the way I expected. You can't load directly from the card itself, which almost defeats the purpose of why I invested in it in the first place.

First, you must copy your file to the SD card. Then, when you stick it in a different Wii Console, you must copy that same file to that console. This is very hectic when you and your friend own the same game. You're only allowed to have one system file per game. So if you plan on showing your friend all the cool stuff you've got on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and he also owns the game, you can't just stick in your SD card and load your game. Instead your friend would have to copy his system data to a SEPARATE SD card (because you can't have two system files from the same game on one SD card) then delete his system data from the memory of the console while you stick in your SD memory card and copy your data to his console. Then when you're done showing him all the things you've obtained on your file you'll have to put in your SD card, copy your data back to your card (if you made any changes) and then he must stick in his SD card to that he can copy his data back to his system. It's a long tedious process.

The console also won't accept any system data from another game until that game has been played on the corresponding console. So if your friend gave you a file of Twilight Princess, but you never saved game data to your console before, it won't work. Even if you save game data to your console, you'll have to delete it anyway to copy your game data (the console will actually remember that you saved system data from said game, once and so it'll accept it).

Part of the reason to invest in a memory card (despite the system memory) was for the convenience of being able to take it to a friend's house without having to lug my system. Here, the SD card can only be used to backup data. That's all it serves as, and that's disappointing to see. Unless you want to go through the grueling process described above with switching SD cards in and out and deleting and recopying data to your system memory, there's no reason to get this. Backing up Virtual Console games is a waste in and of itself because if you, for whatever reason, have to delete them from your console, you can download it again at no extra charge (unless you delete your account).

The Nintendo Brand cards are also very expensive. You can actually by a standard 2GB SD card for twenty dollars cheaper and it works no different than this one does.

This is very disappointing to see. Especially because some Wii channels (especially if you do want to go through with the virtual console download) take up quite a bit of memory... fast. It's nice to be able to backup data, but why not be able to load directly from the card itself?

It's hard to recommend buying an SD card for your Nintendo Wii. The price is expensive, and you can't load directly from the card, and the process of loading data on someone else's console is devastatingly tedious. Hopefully you won't actually need one of these for your Wii, but if you do, the standard one is far better for the price alone.

The Good

+You can back up your save data, photos, virtual console games, etc.

The Bad

-You can't load directly from the card itself
-If you take your memory card to a friend's house and they own the same game, the process to load your data on his/her console is grueling and tedious
-Virtual console games are wasted backup memory
-This is really expensive; a standard SD card works better
-It's horribly inconvenient! You probably ARE better off taking your console to your friends house. Even if he/she owns the same game, the process of loading your data on their console is long and grueling. The memory card was meant to take the place of the console in terms of storing save data, but what's the point if you can't load directly from the card itself?

H. Lam 2007-01-01

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

SD memory cards are an optional purchase of limited usefulness for your Nintendo Wii. Use a SD memory card to store photographs and music for the Wii's Photo Channel; and to back-up saved games, downloaded Wii Virtual Console titles, and Wii software (such as the Wii Internet browser).

Downloaded virtual console titles and software can't be run directly from an SD card but only from the Wii's console memory. Nintendo's thought here is that if you don't have any free space in your Wii's console memory for new software or a saved game, offload something onto a SD card. However, one may also delete purchased virtual console titles and software, because these may be re-downloaded free of charge from the Wii Shopping Channel.

Offloaded virtual console titles and Wii software on an SD card may not be used on another Wii console, as they are locked specifically to your Wii Shopping Channel account. SD cards will not store Nintendo GameCube saved games -- you will need to purchase a GameCube memory card for that. Your Mii avatars may not be backed up onto a SD card. Use a Wii Remote Controller to store up to ten Mii characters per controller.

Of note, generic high-speed SD memory cards perform just as well (for example, PQI, Ridata, or Sandisk), and often cost one-third less than a Sandisk/Nintendo branded SD memory card. Given the Nintendo Wii's limited utilization of SD memory cards, generic SD cards are a smarter buy.

The-Bus 2006-12-29

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

The only thing that you would need an SD card for when using the Wii is for custom soundtracks (works only in Excite Truck), photos (only viewable in the Photo Viewer), and game saves (which can be saved on a card anyway).

You can't put Virtual Console games on it, so getting a 1GB or even a 2GB is overkill unless you've got a ton of music you want to listen to while playing Excite Truck.

What's worse is that these cards are made by Sandisk and are exactly the same as the ones you can get for $15-$25 without the Wii name on it.

So not only is the product mostly unnecessary, it's also incredibly overpriced. Avoid.

E. Ignacio 2006-12-29

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

You don't "need" an SD card for the Wii system unless you often go to your friends house and play over there using your stats. The Wii has a built in hard drive to save everything.

But if you're going to buy an SD card for the Wii, just buy a regular one used for a digicam. It's exactly the same. Save some money to spend on better games.