I only got my Wii U yesterday (The Wind Waker Edition) and I have noticed that after deleting stuff like Netflix and iPlayer I only have 20GB free space to download games. I am hoping to download quite a few indie and virtual console titles so I'll probably need to expand my storage so which external HDD is best for a Wii U?
I will most likely get this after my birthday but I don't want to shell out too much for one. I am in the UK so please take that into account!
Even if you download some of the most hefty GBA VC titles in terms of MB (they tend to fall between 40 and 120MB), your Wii U console alone should have more than enough even if you attempt filling up your whole console with every single VC game in existence. That is, unless you download the Wii games from Wii U eShop. Those could easily fill your Wii U's internal memory.
The file size for Indie games may vary between dozens of MBs to a couple of GBs, but there aren't too many of the latter.
So yeah, if you download just a few indie games and Virtual Console, you don't actually need to get a USB hard drive. But, if you believe you'll end up download a lot more than you thought, then getting one isn't a bad idea. While you can use any type of USB memory unit, I would recommend getting any USB hard drive that can use an AC adapter over everything else. It won't have to draw power from your Wii U, therefore making it more reliable. Also, it only takes up one USB port and one AC wall socket. They can be a bit expensive, but it's definitely well-worth the purchase in case you wind up downloading more games than you might have thought.
A 500GB hard drive can fit around 20 25GB games on one. For an average gamer, that should be more than enough. If you can't find a better deal than the price of a 500GB hard drive, then settle for that one. I personally own a 2TB one and I could possibly fit 80 25GB games, which is pretty much overkill considering my gaming habits and perhaps the current entire Wii U library of games.
