Nintendo shocked the gaming world today with a surprise Nintendo Direct. Iwata was the host once again and the video was filled to bursting point with yet more Wii U information. This video focuses on the Wii U Virtual Console, backwards compatibility and the use of hard drives on Wii U. 

If you're not fluent in Japanese or don't have the time for lengthy videos, we have picked out all of the important information for you, which you can find below the video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6q8sNhm4uM

Iwata spoke about External Hard Drive support on Wii U and it's mostly good news. The Wii U will support hard drives of up to 2TB. to put that into perspective, the average Wii game is 4GB and 1TB is around 1000GB... so yes, you'll have plenty of room when it comes to downloading games. 

The only downside to this is that the hard drive can only be used on your Wii U console. Upon setting up your hard drive, you will be asked to format the drive in order for it to work with Wii U which means it will no longer be usable on other devices such as your PC. Thankfully though, it seems that games can be played directly from the USB drive, as oppose to the SD card situation on Wii. 

Speaking of the Wii, you will still be able to use SD cards to store Wii, WiiWare and Wii Virtual Console data. You will not be able to store Wii U data on an SD card, however. 

Finally, Iwata shed some light on the Wii U Virtual Console as well as sharing information about backwards compatability with the Wii. 

It seems the Wii U Virtual Console will be compatible with the GamePad. Interestingly though, Iwata states "Please look forward to it in the future" which pretty much confirms we will have to wait a little while past launch for the Wii U Virtual Console to become available. 

Sadly, it seems that Wii games on your Wii U, such as WiiWare and Wii Virtual Console titles, will not be playable on the GamePad. 

"We understand that there are people who were looking forward to playing Wii games, Virtual Console games, and so forth on the GamePad, but unfortunately we cannot accommodate those users' expectations. There are plans for a Wii U Virtual console that will be compatible with the Wii U GamePad."

Iwata can't get enough of these Nintendo Direct videos lately. Earlier today, NOA had just got around to creating their own video with all the latest information from last week's Nintendo Direct. No doubt Nintendo Bill is already busy translating this latest edition. 

Video expected in 6-8 weeks