Softmod Your Wii to Play Free Games

Note: By free games, I mean games you can download for free as backups. Ironic, isn’t it?

Did you know your Wii is capable of playing free games, including games from other consoles? With the Homebrew Channel installed, you will save hundreds, as you can play free games, movies and music from an external USB Hard Drive or burned DVDs! Before we get into how to hack a Wii, let’s first clear any confusion about the Homebrew Channel, then we’ll get into how to get free games later.

Irrelevant: Unlock and Jailbreak Wii

Many people are tricked into thinking that the process of the installing the Homebrew Channel is called “unlocking” or “jailbreaking” a Wii. This is because jailbreaking and unlocking became mainstream terms in the hacking scene since they typically refer to hacking mobile phones and Apple products. A huge contributor was the custom firmware hack for the Sony PS3, which was called a “jailbreak” by GeoHotz (George Hotz), who is the renowned ex-PS3 and iPhone hacker. It makes sense that internet marketers (scammers) would take advantage of this and target people who are searching “unlock Wii” or “jailbreak Wii,” when they are actually looking for decent information regarding how to hack a Wii. These four companies are a perfect example: Wii Unlocker Ultra, Homebrew Installer, Wii Unlock Plus, and BreWii.

Relevant: Hack and Softmod/Mod

It’s much more specific and technical to call installing the Homebrew Channel as softmodding (software modifying) or just modding. This is why you should search for terms like “how to mod a Wii,” “Wii softmod,” “Wii mod,” or “wii hack” so you can get more relevant search results and install homebrew for free. The developers of the Wii homebrew and other homebrew applications have always released their projects to the public free of charge, which is why it’s really sad to see other companies stealing their hard work in order to sell it to susceptible Wii consumers.

Don’t Be Scammed: Learning How to Mod a Wii Should Be Free!

Naturally, all these mainstream terms have been used interchangeably, which is really confusing when you’re trying to search for a tutorial on how to hack a Wii. It’s mainly because of scammers trying to steal your money by flooding the search engines with $30 guides and software that will “unlock” or “jailbreak” your Wii. They use those terms because they appeal to less technical people, which are more likely to purchase their product. Taking information that is widely available on the internet and then calling it something else in order to scam consumers is utterly despicable!

What is Homebrew?

Anyway, the Wii Homebrew Channel is basically a custom “operating system” that allows you to use homebrew applications. When the Wii was first released in 2006, hackers specifically reverse engineered how it processes and boots its software.   They found that they could install homebrew software and have it boot before the Wii’s original software does. With the advance of this custom “operating system,” many doors opened for further customization. For hackers, this meant they could install anything they wanted and use it in the Homebrew Channel!

The Birth of Homebrew Applications

Since then, homebrew apps were actively being developed to significantly expand the Wii’s technical capabilities. It was only a matter of time until these apps allowed users to play games from Nintendo’s previous consoles, such as GameCube, N64, and SNES, and other consoles including Sony’s PlayStation and Sega’s Genesis.  These Wii homebrew apps eventually enabled users to load original and backup movie DVDs, regardless of region. Basically, you could download a Japanese DVD (region 2), burn it, and watch it through the Homebrew Channel using one of the widely available video apps.

Common Apps to Play Free Games and DVDs

One of the most popular apps is the USB Loader, which lets you play free games from a USB drive. A similar app is Neogamma, which is a Backup Disc Launcher.  It lets you load Wii games from a backup DVD and also supports loading from USB. Media Players are another widely used app that allows you to load most video and audio files from DVD or USB. However, some newer Wii consoles have a DVD drive (D3-2) that isn’t fully compatible used with some apps.

Nintendo VS. Homebrew

Nintendo fought in the war against homebrew apps and piracy for years by releasing updates that attempted to uninstall any custom software. As a result, many Wii hacks stopped working, and some hackers reported that their Wii actually “bricked,” or became broken. After each update, Wii hackers found new exploits that allowed the reinstallation and unbricking of the Homebrew Channel and their apps. Some of the first Wii hackers to find a new exploit called themselves Team Twiizers. They are well known for their Twilight Hack, which is the first exploit that successfully allowed any Wii below version 3.2 to be softmodded with the Wii game Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Homebrew Channel No Longer Safe?

It was only a matter of time until Nintendo forced a new update that completely patched the Twilight Hack. At this time, the hacking scene slowed down, as exploits became more difficult to find and more Wii systems bricked. This Wii anti-piracy war continued for four years, resulting in the need to use other Wii games like Super Smash Brothers: Brawl and Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures to successfully install the Homebrew Channel. However, Team Twiizers released two new exploits that changed everything: BannerBomb and LetterBomb.

LetterBomb & BannerBomb  - Easily Learn How to Hack a Wii

Unlike every other exploit that require you to use an original Wii game disc, LetterBomb (4.3) and BannerBomb (below 4.3) only requires a SD card. Since this exploit is independent of any original Wii games, it is much faster and simpler to use for the Wii softmod process. Additionally, these new exploits allow you to install an anti-bricking Wii hack called PriiLoader, so that your modded Wii will automatically block new updates that would probably brick it. Installing the Homebrew Channel on your Wii to play free games couldn’t get any easier. Check out my How to Hack Any Wii 4.3 video guide to find out how!