Richard George posted an article over at IGN titled Nintendo’s Downloadable Dilemma and I think he has definitely nailed some reasons why things on the Wii right now are just … terrible.
I am working through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Wii Virtual Console right now and having a lot of fun, but Nintendo could do so much more to really push things forward. The idea that I don’t have an account attached to my purchase scares me a little bit (even though I’d pay again for the 3DS remastered version of Ocarina of Time) because if my Wii dies, I lose my content as well.
Apple and many others have this right (or have gotten to the point where they have this right). They tie your purchases to your account and you can download your purchases on new hardware and even your current hardware if you accidentally remove it.
Really, that’s the only way to go.
There is a lot that Nintendo needs to fix with the Wii U, but the connectivity aspect along with downloadable content is one of the glaring miscues that really hasn’t been addressed.