Data packs to speed up load times? What is this, an Xbox game?!

Downloading them to an attached USB stick now.


While I've heard the disc load times are fine, the data packs make it all faster. A quality-of-life improvement on playing this big game.

Meh, from what I understand most retail games on competing systems have mandatory installs. For a game with this scope, it seems pretty reasonable.


I want the retail version. I want the ability to play on different consoles, without needing an internet connection. But I have no problem with options (even if recommended) data packs like this.

Are you complaining?
What I want to know is will there be a speed difference between the guy that downloads the game and the guy that buys a disc AND downloads the packs? If there is who will have the better experience? I ask because I've heard there'll be a difference, but I've heard 2 different stories about which is better.

Ooh, that's interesting. Where are the stories coming from?


Shouldn't download be faster?  Although I guess speed would depend on whether you have the game on internal storage or an external drive, and if external what kind of drive you are using.  I'm curious how the half-and-half approach could speed things up unless the Wii U can pull data from the disc drive and hard drive simultaneously - something I wouldn't have assumed the system was designed to do.

Huh? The digital download will already include the data packs. The physical version will not. If you download the data packs for your physical version, you should be getting the same experience as the guy who downloaded the digital version.


Either way, I recall someone saying the loading times aren't that egregious without the data packs(it might have been the Famicast?).

That's the exact reason I heard as to why the half and half would be better. I wish I remembered where I had read the article. It was way back before Japan got the game and these download packs were first announced. I didn't think the download packs would matter to me because I was planning on downloading the game, but then I read an article that said the faster experience was to buy the disc and download these packs because the system could pull the data from both sources simultaneously so I was convinced to buy physical (learning about the special edition helped)
Then a couple days ago a guy in the comments section at Nintendo Life (I know not super credible that's why I'm asking because I'm hoping someone knows and can show me a source) said that those that download the game will have the superior experience.

But this is Nintendo, they are supposed to be better!

These download/install packs are NOT mandatory so why in the world are you complaining. If you don't want todo them then don't, but if you want the slightly better experience then do them.

Anyone know how much space Splatoon and SSB take up?  Because if you bought the Smash/Splat bundle with those games pre-installed you've already eaten up a chunk of space and then if you go and get this that's another 10 GB.  I'm asking because that could very well be my journey towards playing this game and it would be nice to know if I should budget a hard drive.

Just to beat a dead horse about price drops some more it is worth noting that while the Wii U is technically still cheaper than the PS4 the PS4 comes with a 500 GB hard drive while the Wii U comes with a dinky 32 GB of storage.  So what is the price difference really if you have to buy an external hard drive with your Wii U purchase to match?  The price difference is pretty much gone.

Smash is like 15 gigs with a couple more in updates that you'll need if you want to play online, Splatoon is like 2 gigs including patches. Plus operating system and system updates which is another 5... so you'd have about 8 left over.

You're not going to have enough space for the XenoX data packs. The cheapest and hassle free option is to get (or find) a USB 2.0 (don't was a 3.0 stick on a Wii U) with 16+ GB of storage. While Nintendo doesn't recommend using USB sticks and forum chatter has expressed caution (the guess is that the way Wii U uses external storage might wear out a USB stick fast), the convenience of using a USB stick out weighs the risk.

I've been using one for a month and nothing bad has happened yet.

... I think you're taking this too seriously...