Wiikey V2 vs Wii Sports Resort

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an expert on this. These are just my views, observations and results based on my own efforts to find information and upgrade the firmware on my console.

After installing the Wiikey V2 in March 2009 (about 6 months ago) I've gotten away without having to update the Wii firmware up till now. I never had a need. There were no games out there that grabbed my attention enough to make me want to go, "YES! I need this game." I found that the games I enjoyed, didn't need an update and any that did, I wasn't interested in ENOUGH to risk bricking my Wii through a bad update.

That was, up until now. Wii Sports Resort changed all that. I've played it a number of times on other machines and absolutely love it. It is one of those must have games IMO. But to play it, I was faced with a dilema. I've heard all the horror stories of "bricking your Wii" due to conflicts between the Wiikey and the firmware. I know all about the lovely firmware that Nintendo released that detected the Wiikey and broke everything. So, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned about updating the Wii firmware. And finding an exact answer on the topic on the internet felt like wading through pages and pages of some sort of policitical party's promises full of "he said she said" and old out dated information that had little to nothing to do with my situation.

Which brings me to the reason for this blog. To update the firmware on your Wii for Wii Sports Resort when you have a Wiikey V2 installed, you need to have the firmware of your Wiikey up to 1.9s. This is the first obstacle I came across. How the hell do I find out what version of the firmware my Wiikey is on? Well, short answer, you can't. Sux to be you or me in this case. This is where things started to become educated guesses, but hopefully this will help you too. The firmware 1.9s for the Wiikey V2 was released in March 2008. (Go here for info: http://wii.qj.net/WiiKey-Firmware-update-v1-9s-released/pg/49/aid/116835) So my assumption was that any new Wiikey V2's purchased after that date from a reputable dealer SHOULD have the latest firware (1.9s) installed on it. My Wiikey was installed in March 2009. Oh happy days.

Some of the nice features of the Wiikey V2 is that it "has an inbult update blocker that allows you to block updates from NTSC game, which means you cannot brick your console by accident! [And] Upgradeable/configureable via DVD. Tthe modchip's SPI flash (where all the game authentication is stored) is 100% upgradable via a DVD." (Retrieved September 28, 2009, from http://www.ozmodchips.com/wiikey-v2-installation-1075-only-p-181.html) So I just needed to make sure that the dvd that I was upgrading my firmware from, was a PAL game. I simply got hold of a purchased version of Wii Sports Resort and ran the update and I was ready to go.

At this point, I'd like to add some notes. You can configure the Wiikey by downloading the Config disk and running it on the Wii. If you do, make sure you've ONLY enabled updating of the Wii firware according to the region you purchased the Wii (http://www.wiikey.cn). My recommendation is, DON'T update your Wii firmware from a downloaded game. I don't think you can EVER be certain that the game really is from the region you believe it is. And EVENTHOUGH Wiikey promises to not allow the update from a different region, can you really ever be sure? Would YOU risk a broken console over it?

In the end, make sure the firmware of your Wiikey V2 is 1.9s. If it isn't, download the update and install it (Look at afterdawn.com). Once you've done this, you SHOULD have no problems updating from the game DVD. (When I started, I didn't even know this :p)

Best of luck.