Alright, I'm considering buying freeloader for my Wii as I'm sick of being blatantly ripped off in NZ and would far rather buy from the USA.

Do you guys know if this is;

 1. Legal?

2. Safe for the Wii?

Thanks. 

1. The legal part depends on your country. In my country it is legal. However I am not an expert in New Zealand law, so I can't say anything about your country. (However, if you can buy it without a problem in a store than it should be legal.)

2. I can't say anything abut the long term effects. Right now my wii still works fine. But it can happen that the wii displays games in strange colors. For instance, if I use my RGB-cable than it shows too much red color. If I use the TV from my parents than it looks nearly black and white. However if I use my own TV with the standard cable everything looks fine.

Important note: It is rumoured that nintendo can easily disable the freeloader with a firmware-update. I don't know if they will do this or maybe already have done this. (I haven't updated my wii for a while.) So keep in mind that it could happen, that your imported games could be made useless by nintendo.

Wow i never knew you were from NZ..

i feel sorry for you man :(

1. No idea. I imagine it depends on your jurisdictional laws, so your fellow kiwis will know best.

2. It's not a hardware mod, so I don't think you can brick your Wii with one. At the same time, it's not guaranteed to work with all games and future Wii updates (always compulsory for the latest big Nintendo release) may very well break the freeloader.

Well my Wii has never been, and probably will never be connected to the internet because I'm far too lazy to set up Wi-Fi and none of my mates have one anyway so I don't think I need to worry about updates.

Thanks for your advice guys.

...

Updates are not only transfered over the internet. You can also get an update on a gamedisc. So this means you are not save just because you don't use the internet.

This reminds me of another risc. If you import a game, which has an update on the disc than you can brick your wii if you install the update. (Because the update of the imported disc is ment for a ntsc-wii and not for a pal-wii.) However I think the freeloader has a mechanism to avoid foreign updates. (You just must insert him twice.) But I don't know what happens if you forget this ...

Argh. Thats annoying.

Do you know if either Super Mario Galaxy or Zack&Wiki come with updates on the discs?

I'm now thinking I might not get this, it sounds slightly too risky for me.

Anybody else with a freeloader able to advise me on the risks involved?

i heard it wasn't compatible with MK Wii

don't know how future-proof the freeloader is. Mod chips are probably more likely to be future proof (as they come with flashable memory) but of course you void your warranty by installing them.

As for bricking your Wii, so long as you keep it updated to the latest version of the system software, it won't happen. However, you may get duplicate channels (2 weather and news channels, one of which don't work)

I think every game disc includes the latest firmware (perhaps as of the game's release date), which means that potentially every game can update your Wii. Personally, I think the Freeloader is a risky waste of money. Risky because of the updates issue, waste of money because it will probably only work for some time.

A better solution is to sell one's Wii and import one (and all games) from USA. Maybe you'll even save money, the way exchange rates are going these days (depending on how customs work there). Just keep in mind that you'll need a power converter (220 V to 110 V).