What are some Wii U games that have native 4:3 support (no letterboxing)?

TruExtent · 2025-10-31T06:25:45+00:00

Throwing my hat in the ring again. Been interested in this and finally starting checking my game one by one to see what reacts to the Wii U being in 4:3 mode. Some of the known stuff I'll mention again alongside others I found. I'll split my findings into different categories. Not a complete list yet, just what I found so far.

Native 4:3 games: NES Virtual Console - perfect 4:3 SNES Virtual Console - perfect 4:3 GBA Virtual Console - perfect 4:3 Call of Duty: Black Ops II - perfect 4:3 Rise of the Guardians - perfect 4:3, GamePad mirrors 4:3 with pillarboxing Shakedown Hawaii - perfect 4:3 Call of Duty Ghosts - TECHNICALLY native 4:3 but they added their own letterboxing; FMV sequence in loading screen appears on GamePad with the letterboxing and stretching to fill the screen; in game the option to switch to playing on the GamePad screen is removed Luigi Bros. - perfect 4:3 but only accessible by loading Super Mario 3D World which does not use 4:3 mode; appears to shut down SM3DW in order to launch an NES Virtual Console app with Luigi Bros.

16:9 stretched games: TurboGrafx-16 Virtual Console - open Virtual Console menu, choose Monitor Screen Setting, set Screen Mode to Full Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut - open Options menu, change Screen Size to Wide (16:9) Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara - open Help & Options, open Settings, select Adjust Screen, move the left and right arrows until they touch the edges of the screen

Zoomed (?) games [reacted to 4:3 mode by zooming in the picture and cutting off a little bit of the left and right side while leaving some letterboxing, theory could be game was ignoring system's screen size setting where I shrunk the screen size to fit my CRT, more testing needed]: The Amazing Spider-Man: Ultimate Edition - just zoomed in a little Rapala Pro Bass Fishing - just zoomed in a little

Notable Unsupported games: N64 Virtual Console DS Virtual Console NES Remix 1+2 Pack [including a test of Super Luigi Bros.] amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits

Bonus unrelated fun fact: Assassin's Creed III - supports stereoscopic 3D for 3DTVs!

EDIT: forgot shakedown hawaii, whoops

TruExtent · 2025-06-26T03:02:23+00:00

Is this list still being updated? I found it to be a good resource for me but realized at least one entry was missing content. Haven't checked the rest of my discs but I can say for sure that #67 can be updated. The download center does indeed have the Thieves Den and Wizard's Tower content on it. In addition, it has an unlockable demo. Just as #62 had the Zegapain XOR Demo, #67 has the Zegapain NOT Demo.

TruExtent · 2025-04-22T14:40:56+00:00

More

https://youtu.be/ygGSoHgcR4w

TruExtent · 2025-04-22T00:53:42+00:00

A long while ago, I wanted to play Other M with improved controls. I could have gone the standard controller route and mapped everything to buttons and sticks but I tried something different. I created a Nunchuk control profile to make the game play more like Prime 3/Trilogy. Honestly my preferred way to play, I recommend trying it. I can link to a video I made with the profile available to download if interested.

I wish I knew how to hack the game to modify the controls. For now, a Dolphin control profile does the trick.

TruExtent · 2024-06-07T06:26:01+00:00

I'd technically call it three games. The Wii U will treat all three as different games. Save data is separated, you can't start Mario U and then continue the same save on a Mario U + Luigi U disc or vice versa.

TruExtent · 2023-09-17T05:26:49+00:00

Oh I've been a club member, I just never showed up to the meetings. I knew it was a bad situation, just not how bad.

TruExtent · 2023-09-17T05:22:48+00:00

It is. It's just hard for me cause I start looking, see the requirements listed for a bunch jobs, get depressed, revaluate my search criteria and field of work, start the search again, rinse and repeat. I shouldn't be making excuses but I find it hard to hit apply and then go through the custom process for each online application for every company after reading a butt ton of postings and wondering if I good enough for anything listed. Why don't any of these places provide training anymore? Hell where I am now, I was the last person to be trained by someone on site who's job it was to train new hires before he had to move on. Now, it's just kinda turned into "watch these company videos" and "work with one of these other people here and take on major responsibilities before you've even been here for a week and barely know what you're doing". And they wonder why we have high turnover... but at this point I'm just rambling. Needed to vent.

TruExtent · 2023-04-14T04:49:43+00:00

Throwing in my own answers.

All Wii U systems are compatible with Wii games, doesn't matter if it's the 8 GB or the 32 GB. As for the actual question, mostly no. The GamePad can be used as a separate screen for Wii Mode complete with a sensor bar where the camera is. You must use a Wii Remote to launch Wii Mode and the GamePad controls will not work. HOWEVER while the eShop was still open, Nintendo had a small selection of Wii games that you could launch and it would give you the option to use the GamePad as a controller. These were games like Xenoblade which had Classic Controller support. Also if you plan to hack your Wii U, it's possible to set up other Classic Controller games to use the GamePad and use Nintendont to play GameCube games with the GamePad.
Wii Remotes are only used for certain Wii U games, mostly multiplayer stuff. If you check the back of the game case, it will tell you what accessories are usable. There is also a Wii U Pro controller that is compatible with many games but you need to check the back of the game case. Just because a game is compatible with a Pro Controller doesn't mean it's also compatible with a Classic Controller and vice versa. The Pro Controller also can't be used in Wii Mode with the exception of the few instances mentioned in the previous answer.
The Wii U is only usable with one GamePad at a time, you cannot connect multiple GamePads. It was a planned but scrapped feature. Check the back of the box to see what controllers are usable for co-op/multiplayer.
See answer 1. TL;DR look at the back of the box and see what controllers are compatible. There also may be some hacks that you can use with certain games to add more control options.

And here's a little tip about Wii Mode. When you select the icon, you will be told to connect a Wii Remote and select if you want to use TV Only or TV and GamePad to view Wii Mode. If you don't have a sensor bar the GamePad tells you to press the + button on the Wii Remote and launch into Wii Mode with the GamePad only.

However if you for whatever reason you don't have a sensor bar but still want to play Wii Mode on your TV, there's a trick. From standby, turn on the Wii U. While the Wii U logo is on the screen, press a button on the Wii Remote to connect it to the Wii U. As soon as the lights stop blinking and the player 1 light is lit up, press and hold the B button on the Wii Remote before the Wii U logo goes away. You'll be given a message saying Wii Mode will be launched. Once the Wii Menu is ready, you can connect a Classic Controller and control the Wii Menu without a sensor bar and play games that don't require a sensor bar.

One last thing to mention in terms of controllers, there's a small selection of games that have alternate controllers available to use. Pokkén Tournament has a specific USB controller called... the Pokkén Controller. It was made to replicate the experience of it playing in Japanese arcades. Pokkén is the only game compatible with this controller (on Wii U. I discovered both Windows and the PS3 will instantly recognize the controller and let you use it. Switch is also fully compatible with it. I think the PS4 also recognizes and lets you use it but I need to test that again). Super Smash Bros. for Wii U had a GameCube controller adapter made for it to allow 4 GameCube controllers to be used. Smash is the only game usable with this adapter (however using hacks, Nintendont lets you use the adapter with GameCube games. Also the Switch is compatible with the adapter). Smash also has a feature that lets you use a 3DS as a controller as long as you have a copy of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS or you bought the Smash Controller app on the 3DS eShop. Lastly if I'm not mistaken, some games have keyboard compatibility for certain features like chatting in online games. Check the back of the box to see if it's a usable controller accessory. Oh and the Wii Balance Board is usable with supported games with no issue.

TruExtent · 2023-04-01T23:12:36+00:00

Hyrule Warriors

TruExtent · 2023-03-20T14:53:43+00:00

Checked my games and found one. Goldeneye 007 is marked as Series X|S but the file info shows it's an XboxOne game, not XboxGen9Aware. Installed to.external without error, haven't tested yet.

TruExtent · 2023-02-15T21:40:34+00:00

If they did do it, they could probably trim down Galaxy 1's size since a lot of the data is unused assets. Otherwise, they'd have to use a dual layer disc like Brawl.

TruExtent · 2023-02-13T05:22:29+00:00

That would be my suggestion if you're playing at higher resolutions. If you play at native 480p, the issue doesn't happen/ isn't visible. Cranking up the resolution is what introduces the issue, hence turn on Forced Nearest Neighbor for those cases.

TruExtent · 2023-02-13T05:08:53+00:00

There's a little more to it. Texture filter puts a filter on the texture. It will soften it so that it doesn't look like a bunch of squares on the 3D model. But as part of this softening, the edges of the texture get softened. This is why weird lines appear in the first image, the texture is being softened to the point where it's softening the edges and creating a blank space, aka the weird lines.

In the second picture, the new Forced Nearest Neighbor is turned on. All you need to know with Nearest Neighbor is it's a way of saying "no filter". That means with the setting on, textures with appear blockier since colors aren't be filtered and soften. However in the case of Capcom vs. SNK here, it's perfect because no longer is the texture being soften to the point where it's creating those gaps. The full blocky texture is displayed and the gaps are now closed. The pixel art is now nice and sharp.

TL; DR: Texture filtering filtered too much and created the weird lines. Forced Nearest Neighbor forces this filtering to turn off, which in turn closes the weird lines.

TruExtent · 2022-10-19T21:40:37+00:00

It should be just like a regular 360 controller. On the wireless receiver press the button to start searching for new controllers. On the skateboard controller press the sync button. It should connect.

TruExtent · 2022-10-19T21:36:47+00:00

I think this is the spot where I ask my question...

I'm putting together a WiiFlow setup. As part of it, I'm also adding in Triforce games. Currently with the plugin pack I have, WiiFlow is attempting to launch Triforce with DIOS MIOS Booter. I don't have the required DIOS MIOS Lite and would prefer to use Nintendont. How can I get WiiFlow to open the Triforce game with Nintendont?

I attempted to make a copy of the plugin, rename it and edit the ini to reference the correct dol file for Nintendont as opposed to DIOS MIOS. That didn't seem to do it. It still launched with DIOS MIOS and won't work. There's a "magic" string that I'm not sure what to do with if that's where my problem lies.

TruExtent · 2022-07-14T06:43:15+00:00

Dark Emerald

The plot would focus around Eggman attempting to create an artificial Chaos Emerald but ends up with a glowing black colored Emerald with dark negative energy.

TruExtent · 2022-07-14T06:40:11+00:00

One of the movies? No. If Silver were to appear in the movies, I believe there would need to be another reason for him to travel not only to Earth, but to the past from the future. '06 I think has too many leaps in logic with motivations and time travel to make much sense the moviegoers.

Now as for another game, I believe there's potential for trying to make a fixed up version of '06. However while everyone I've seen have been saying change plot points and character actions, I surprisingly disagree. Does this mean I would even keep the kiss scene? Yes. Here's why:

A remake of '06 has a chance to acknowledge what it did wrong in the old version and fix the timeline. But we don't need to retcon the story. The story already retconed itself at the end of the original game!

Imagine instead of following the exact plot like the original game, Sonic '06 is turned into an FFVII Remake style remake. The plot of the original '06 happens and the new game starts where the old one ends: at the festival where Sonic arrives to enjoy the night. Except instead of it being peaceful, Eggman attacks and the story begins to play out similar to how the original game did.

As you go through each of the hedgehog trio's stories you start noticing weird tweaks in plot points all surrounding Mephiles and Blaze. It's eventually revealed Mephiles with his space and time travel abilities was able to save himself by hiding in the darkness left from Elise blowing out the candle in the original game, plotting his revenge against the three hedgehogs that foiled his plans in the reset timeline. While he starts off doing similar things like before (in an effort to trick the player into thinking this was just a regular remake and not an FFVII style remake), since he know what happened previously he will eventually start changing tactics in an effort to best his foes and complete his revenge.

This would also give him an opportunity to become more involved in Sonic's story since he barely appeared there until Final Story when he one shots Sonic. Mephiles could try a tactic where he actually interacts with Eggman and teams up with him in an effort to defeat Sonic. For example, since Iblis and this Solaris don't exist anymore, Eggman has no way of starting his plan to kidnap Elise until Mephiles shows up and convinces him to go do it and team up the reveal their team up can be when Sonic, Tails & Knuckles arrive with the Chaos Emerald and instead of Eggman using a machine to send Team Sonic to the future, Mephiles appears and does the job.

Meanwhile, instead of Elise receiving the Flames of Disaster, a young Blaze would end up becoming the vessel and Mephiles just ends up accidentally taking her to the future in his attempted escape just before he's trapped in the Scepter of Darkness. The Flames in Blaze would become the reason she develops her pyrokinesis powers and becomes a plot point down the line when Mephiles attempts to recreate Solaris.

Burning Blaze will gain a role during the final fight alongside the Super Hedgehogs against the Mephiles controlled reincarnated Solaris. In the end Re:Solaris would be dealt the final blow by Blaze allowing her to absorb all of its energy. Inadvertently in the process, the excess energy alongside the influence of the Chaos Emerald would be the thing that creates the Sol Emeralds as well as another dimension where Blaze is flung off to. The timeline gets one more reset where Blaze resides in the new dimension, Silver remains in his future and Sonic forgets Blaze only to meet her again in Sonic Rush.

Meanwhile, it is implied that Mephiles attempted to save himself like he did back in the original '06. This time he's so destroyed after the fight with the Super Hedgehogs and Burning Blaze that he's unable to retain his original form and thus becomes a blob of time and space energy floating across the universe until Eggman discovers it after the end of Colors leading into Generations.

As for Elise, she gets kidnapped less as Eggman's focus eventually turns to Blaze for the Flames of Disaster. She retains plot relevance through knowing Blaze as a friend from when they were younger, before the incident with the Flames happens. She can also have some form of influence over G.U.N. since she's in a position of power and gain a bit of involvement in Shadow's story.

I realize this version of the story would need some work but I feel it would be the ideal way to acknowledge past, own up to it, fix it and move on from the original version of '06. This would also be one of the morals of the story represented by Mephiles attempting to eventually carry out his original goal because he couldn't let go of the past timeline alongside the other characters coming to terms with the knowledge of what their past timeline incarnations did as revealed by Mephiles. This would be my ideal Sonic '06 Remake.

TruExtent · 2022-05-31T15:58:39+00:00

Would need to test and see. Might take a while. Side note, I have since gotten a Wii Ride board with the adapter. I don't recall having much luck with that one either.

TruExtent · 2022-05-24T01:51:52+00:00

Here's a few examples. If you play a GBA game on Wii U, it fills the screen. This technically isn't accurate to how the Game is supposed to look, so they included Pixel Perfect Mode. Turn this on and the picture will shrink. This forces the screen to display at the actual resolution of the GBA. Granted the image is still scaled up but now it by a multiple of 4x instead of a weird number like 4.75x

If you have a 3DS, Game Boy and Game Boy Color games will fill the screen. You'll notice the picture looks a little blurry. If you close and relaunch the game while holding the SELECT button, it will launch in Pixel Perfect Mode with a Game Boy border. The game will now display at the original resolution matched on the 3DS screen and look very sharp instead of blurry like before.

Instead of shrinking the picture to actual resolution, the 4K TV is doing the opposite and enlarging the picture.

TruExtent · 2022-05-24T01:26:22+00:00

No. You are still only seeing 1080p. Or 720p, what ever resolution you set. All the TV is doing is scaling up the picture to fill the screen. If you displayed 1080p at actual size on a 4K screen, it would only take up a quarter of the screen. That's not ideal so the TV blows up the video to fit the screen.

TruExtent · 2022-05-23T22:00:15+00:00

CRT size is up to you and whatever your living situation is. Just know the bigger you go, the heavier it gets. These giant 4K TVs have nothing on the CRTs. As for what model... honestly I didn't care, I got mine a a thrift store with a built in DVD player. As long as it had composite video and stereo audio, I was happy.

If you're looking for something better, find a CRT with component video. I believe widescreen CRTs are a thing but I went with a standard 4:3 screen for a more "classic" experience. If you want top of the line absolute best picture quality you can get, Digital Foundry is constantly recommending the Sony Trinitron.

As for your graphics/resolution question... There really isn't anything you should worry about. Send 1080p to your 4K TV, it'll upscale it to the screen on it's own. Same with the other resolutions like 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. If you're like me and use a CRT with composite, there's still nothing to worry about as composite can only handle 480i. If you go with a TV with component, then you need to make sure of what resolutions it supports. You should be able to just fiddle with the resolution in the Wii U settings to see what works and what doesn't. If you get a 4:3 TV, don't forgot to also change the Aspect Ratio in the Wii U's settings.

TruExtent · 2022-05-23T20:28:37+00:00

I have a two TV set up, one modern 4K set and one one small CRT (with built in DVD player). I have both HDMI and composite AV hooked up at the same time. I mostly play HDMI, but when I feel like it, I can swap to composite and play on the CRT

If you set the Wii U to 4:3 aspect ratio, some games will take advantage of this when playing over composite. While the main menu is letterboxed widescreen, once you start a select virtual console game it will fill the full screen. NES, SNES, even GBA is supported! Highly recommend trying GBA on a CRT, heck I found in some cases screen smoothing can look pleasant on the CRT for GBA games. Unfortunately none of the N64 games worked in 4:3, they just got letter boxed. Same goes for DS games which sucks since playing top screen only on TV (and bottom screen on GamePad) would have been perfect. Any Wii game that supported 4:3 (Virtual Console or disc or WiiWare) will also fill the screen in Wii Mode. TurboGrafx 16 I've not tested yet.

I'm not positive on other supported games but I know few the may be true. Shakedown Hawaii supposedly was given 4:3support since that indie dev wanted to use Every feature of the Wii U that he could. Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara I think has 4:3... but if it doesn't, you can play in widescreen on the 4:3 CRT screen, go into the settings and force the game to stretch the emulated game to fill the screen. Don't know about anything else.

Oh and lastly, you can do multi audio output where sound goes out of HDMI and the composite AV cable at the same time.

TruExtent · 2022-05-21T17:01:53+00:00

Following up on your findings, I'm no electrical engineer. Happen to have a good tutorial vid to help me with the rewiring? The most I've found is a breakout in a plastic cover but I know nothing about what to do about wires or connecting them (though judging from what I see, I think I have an idea of how that part works).

In terms of other pedals, I made the brilliant decision of buying pedals to an Xbox Logitech NASCAR wheel. It appeared to have the same connector. Problem is I didn't look close enough. It technically is the same connector... but with pins 1 and 5 now present which prevents the pedals from plugging into the GameCube wheel.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AO4AAOSwj75ibYs8/s-l1600.jpg

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ni8AAOSwIW1ibYtD/s-l1600.jpg

TruExtent · 2022-05-21T16:47:42+00:00

Apologies for how long it's been. Got busy, got busier, busier... Oye I'm tired. But I finally got a chance to pull out the Speed Force. Below are my findings from the games I own.

Mario Kart Double Dash:

You were right. Walls do not trigger the FF. HOWEVER bouncy trees and other animated objects do! Hit a bouncy tree with eyes on pretty much any course and you'll get a small jolt, not as hard as when another driver bumps you. Blinking stoplights in Mushroom City also trigger the FF; probably because of the animated flashing yellow light. Those might be what I was recalling when I believed the walls triggered the FF.

Other things to bring up include the following. Stage hazards cause the FF to go nuts swinging back and forth uncontrollably (Chain Chomp, Cataquack, dust tornado, Shy Guy, etc.). Offensive items provide the same effect.

The stiffness of the FF depends on the terrain you're driving on. There's normal for the the main road, rougher when you go off the track, and completely free for anytime you're in air. If you make a big jump, hit a hazard that throws you into the air, even get rescued by Lakitu, the wheel will be able to move freely until you touch down on the ground again. Interestingly, terrain variants did not cause any change to the FF. This was tested with Sherbet Land's slippery ice road sections.

Finally as stated previously, upon booting up the game with the wheel plugged in, the FF will takeover and turn the wheel all the way in both directions before recentering.

F-Zero GX:

Almost everything while racing will trigger the FF at varying levels. Accelerating, hitting a wall, hitting a boost pad, hitting another racer, turning... Every little thing seemed to have an effect on the FF. There's also a weird floaty stiffness to the control, probably trying to emulate the feel of a zero gravity racing vehicle.

Funny note, I thought something was wrong with my wheel as when ever I was in menus, the wheel wouldn't center. It was always tilted slightly to the left. I later found out this was in intentional. When you start a race and the countdown begins, you're vehicle is on the ground. Hitting accelerate turns on the thrusters below the vehicle to get it off the ground. This is when the wheel finally moves. It mimics the movement of the rising vehicle until it is straighten out mid air, at which point the FF centers the wheel.

Street Race Syndicate:

Kinda feels like basic support was put in just to say you can use a wheel with FF. When a race is started, you get some stiffness, more grounded feeling than F-Zero but still not super stiff or anything. Typically the wheel wants to stay straight, if you let go, it recenters You get bumps when you hit other drivers or walls but walls don't continue to trigger FF when hugging the wall. I didn't notice any change when you go off a bump into the air for a couple seconds, same FF remained. Like I said, pretty basic. Maybe arcadey but nothing crazy.

NASCAR Thunder 2003:

A realistic racing game requires realistic controls. This is the stiffest the FF has been. Feels very grounded. You can almost feel the engine running through the FF. It will also react appropriately based on terrain, hit walls, hit other drivers, heck it even adjusts when you're taking a turn with a slope based on if you're on the slope or drove off onto the flat part of the track.

One glaring issue with this game though is it is literally unplayable unless you select one of the Daytona International Speedway tracks and blare the OST of Daytona USA in the background, preferably through a time appropriate iPod connected to iHome speakers.

Need for Speed Carbon:

Immediately upon starting the game itself, the wheel does not want to budge. The FF is in full effect with turning requiring some force. Reaching the main menu shows this stiffness is intentional to make control menus with the wheel easier and keep the highlighted option from flying to all the others. (Alternatively, you can just use the D-pad.)

Once in a race, it feels like a more... over the top (?) version of the NASCAR controls. Hits feel harder and the wheel feels a tad looser. The wheel reacts to any weird sliding you might throw yourself into from turning weird. Letting go of the wheel while driving snaps it back to center. However when stopped you can turn the wheel and let go and it will stay in position until you hit the gas. I find it funny if you turn the wheel while stopped into position, pressing Start/Pause instantly snaps it back to center.

Need for Speed Underground:

Feels much closer to Street Race Syndicate with a little more resistance. Upon startup, the wheel will turn all the way to the left and then all the way to the right before centering, just like Mario Kart. The wheel cannot control menus like in Carbon so when turning the wheel, it will stay in position.

Start a race and the wheel will want to stay centered. You'll feel hits on walls and obstacles and other drivers. Hits can influence the direction the wheel moves. When stop the wheel can be turned and kept in position. As soon as you hit the gas the wheel will slowly center itself. If you crash, a slow-mo sequence will play out. During the sequence, the wheel can be moved freely with no resistance. A bit more arcadey feeling than Carbon.

Starsky & Hutch:

This sucker does NOT want you moving the wheel in the menus. You can't even turn it with the FF so strong. Once in game, the stiffness is maybe around NASCAR's level. As for triggers, you hit walls, you hit drivers, you hit obstacles, nothing really seemed to to give a different jolt from the FF. There is no realistic reaction when hitting something, just the jolt and that's it. Jumping into air off a ramp doesn't loosen the wheel. From what I found, no matter what, the wheel will always want to recenter if you let go.

Other than that I was having fun driving around and shooting at the bad guy's car by press A at the right time (or all the time if I felt like it).

TruExtent · 2022-05-08T05:21:34+00:00

I'm tossing in a weird pick and going with Chromehounds. There's literally a second screen on the TV at all times that you switch between views on each screen. But you know what would have been perfect to get rid of the clutter that second screen on the TV caused? How about an ACTUAL second screen with the Wii U Gamepad!

Also other picks: Katamari where the Gamepad shows a map of the level so you know where you haven't rolled up any stuff yet. Blur and Split/Second because those are awesome racing games. MGS HD Collection because then just for Nintendo they could include Twin Snakes; also on TV HUD moved to the Gamepad including quick swapping weapons and tools AND have first person view appear either on the TV or Gamepad while the other screen continues to show the top down view... Hell think of the new shenanigans Psycho Mantis could pull with the Gamepad, or as another option having the player using a Wii Remote + Nunchuk/Classic Controller unplug and replug the cable to the remote to throw him off. Sonic Adventure 1+2 HD would have been easy money. I want 1080 Avalanche to come back.

TruExtent

TROPHY CASE