Datel announces Freeloader for Nintendo Wii

From a consumer’s point of view it really is hard to find fault with Datel’s new Freeloader for Wii, releasing for a mere £10 next week.

Freeloader will allow UK gamers to play Japanese and US games on import, months before they have to wait for the European release.

So if you fancy a pop at Smash Bros or the uncut, fully bloodied version of the seminal No More Heroes then all you need to do is pop the Freeloader disc in your Wii for a couple of seconds and then remove it and then pop in the import game disc. It really is that simple.

Play Smash Bros. next week

“This is the one you’ve all been waiting for! Wii FreeLoader lets you play any region of Wii or GameCube game on your Nintendo Wii! At last, you can import games from other territories and play them on your Wii…” reads the excited message on Datel’s site today.

Our colleagues over on computerandvideogames.com were equally as excited as we are about Freeloader on Wii today, noting: “Most importantly, it means you can play the full, uncensored American version of No More Heroes, with all the sweet red blood and stuff intact.

And you can get in on the Smash Bros. Brawl glory with the Americans on 9 March, instead of waiting until May for the European language-filled PAL version.”

No more frustrating waiting

Datel's description of Freeloader continues: “Videogamers the world over get really frustrated when games are released in other territories long before they reach the shops in their home country, if they ever get released at all. You want to play that blockbuster survival horror which is out in Japan three months before it hits the shelves elsewhere.

"What about the soccer or F1 sim which only gets a European release or a gridiron football or NBL baseball game that’s never released outside the States?

"Or maybe you bought an imported Wii because you wanted to get it early, and you now want to play games from your own region without buying a second machine. Well, now you can. With Wii Freeloader, you can play any region of game on your Wii!”

Wii Freeloader is basically a no-brainer must-buy product if you own a Wii. And for the real fanboys, you can also go back and play all those imported GameCube games on your Wii as well. Datel claims that the product will not enable pirated games to be played on the Wii.

TechRadar has approached Nintendo and a number of Wii developers to guage their opinion on Freeloader.