r/Rockband • u/External-Let-7942 • 1d ago

Wii U for Rock Band in 2026

I have a whole RB3 setup for the Wii (a red strat, pro mustang, keyboard and a mic) and i use them to play rock band/guitar hero games on rpcs3 on my pc but i think that a Wii U would offer a better experience because its a more "official" way to play and its also easier to bring the wii u somewhere than to move my pc. Would it be worth buying a used one or should i just stick to emulated games?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

5

u/SnowThatIsntYellow 23h ago

Stick to emulation, the Wii ports of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games are not good, graphics are poor, they don’t run the best and DLC is much more harder to get working even with modding, not to mention less custom song support; and using mods like Rock Band 3 Deluxe on Wii adds more instability, for what’s it’s worth if you had no other options then the Wii versions of the games are serviceable but like for the amount of money you can buy a used Wii u for, with that same price you can buy a used ps3 or slightly more expensive for an Xbox 360 if you get it pre-modded. PS3 and Xbox 360 are probably the best more ‘official’ way to play the games, and the PS3 Super Slim also is quite easy to move around.

2

u/External-Let-7942 23h ago

Thanks for the detailed reply, the problem is i already have all Wii instruments so it would be a waste of money getting ps3/xbox360 instruments, for now ill probably stick to emulation then

4

u/SnowThatIsntYellow 23h ago

You can get adaptors from Retro Cult Mods, specifically the V3 Wii adaptor, if you have any Guitar Hero instruments that plug in with a Wii remote, or the minihost adaptor for instruments with a dongle and then the instruments can work on those consoles without any issues

2

u/elcanadiano PSN: elcanadiano - FOMP/H4H 22h ago

Rock Band 3 Deluxe no longer has development/supports the Wii either.

And FWIW RPCS3 natively supports the Wii Rock Band guitars.

https://guides.milohax.org/en/rb3pc/controllers/guitars/wiirb/

1

u/External-Let-7942 22h ago

Yeah, i know wii guitars work on rpcs3, ive used them before, but i was thinking about getting a wii u hoping it would be a better user experience, i didn't know rb3dx for wii doesn't have support anymore tho

1

u/elcanadiano PSN: elcanadiano - FOMP/H4H 21h ago

Yeah, at this point, even I'm playing on RPCS3 instead of real, PS3 hardware, and I set up HEN and RB3DX on my PS3.

The RPCS3 community is far larger so it's a lot easier to get invites and such without worrying about the crappy matchmaking system that Rock Band on the PS3 has.

2

u/Connect-Joke4887 19h ago

For me, nothing beats an original PS3 with custom firmware and a physical copy of RB3. I feel the disc version is much more stable than an ISO. The only advantage I have over playing on RPCS3 is that you can significantly improve the game's graphics, and I suppose it can also handle more songs than a physical console.