The here and now

Right now if you asked me straight up if Nintendo lived up to what it was that they originally promised at the announcement of the Wii, I’d say yes hands down.  To date the Wii’s online system is fairly easy to use and is implemented in clean, point and click interface.  The internet services are offered via channels which are: Opera Browser, Everybody Votes, Weather Channel, News Channel, Wii Shop Channel,  Check Mii Out Channel, Nintendo Channel.

Looking at that list, it’s a bit underwhelming, but when you actually take into context all of the different features they give you as a whole to compliment your online experience, you see that Nintendo really did raise their game with their online ventures this time around, and we haven’t even gotten to actually playing software on their service.

If you look at the above list you’ll see you can go from surfing the net, voting on various subjects, check the weather, download titles, view Miis from around the globe, and check out all things Nintendo.

But to just outlay what these individual channels do for the service wouldn’t be doing Nintendo a solid.  I’m not going to go through and list all the great or useless features of each channels but just things that I feel set it apart from the other systems.  For starters there’s the interface of the Weather Channel.  Here you can check the weather for anywhere in the world and if you check the weather regularly (or more than 2 or 3 times a week) once you boot up your system it will display the weather for you area on the channel, you won’t even have to go into the channel, and the same thing goes for the News channel in terms of world news that comes up on the ticker.

The Wii Shop Channel is the life blood of the service from downloading new channels and games, this is where it’s at.  One thing that gets lost is the fact that WiiWare is included in the Wii Shop Channel and isn’t a seperate channel.  WiiWare is just a different classification of games, nothing major but worth noting.  As for the Wii Shop Channel, with anything that you want to download you’ll be given a synopsis and a couple pictures detailing what it is you’re getting into.  There will also be a URL that they give you if it’s a game and you want to see it in action.  In all honesty, while not awful this is a pretty big drawback.  I mean it’s a huge inconvience to be shopping for games and come across something that you maybe interested in to only see a screenshot and a couple paragraphs detailing what the game is about and then a prompt telling you to use your computer (or Opera Browser) to look up the game and see it in action.  While Nintendo has the gift of millions knowing many of their games and franchise beforehand, other companies like SEGA, Neo Geo, Hudson etc. do not.  And at the very least some sort of preview should have been included to view before you purchase.

Then there’s the payment method that comes along with the Wii Shop Channel. This is god awful, there’s no way around it.  Every single time you want to purchase something that requires currency you’ll need to enter the same tedious credit card information in again and again.  Why there isn’t a reason to set up an account that holds this information is beyond me and in the year 2008, unacceptable.  It makes no sense - Virtual Console games you purchase are tied to your Wii system, so why can’t your financial information be given the same respect? There’s no way around it, this is horrible.

The Nintendo Channel expands the Wii’s online functionability by offering you interviews, gameplay videos, TV commercials, DS demo downloads, and also lets you vote on games and send recommendations to friends and vice versa.  This is certainly more robust than what was initially offered upon the Wii’s release.  My only gripe with this service is I wish there was a way to combine this with the aforementioned Wii Shop previews (that would make a whole lot of sense), but beyond that this is a very welcome feature to the Wii.

A negative of this service is the fact that you can download DS game demos, but you can’t download Wii game demos?!  Maybe I missed something, I mean we all know that the DS is reigning supreme in terms of people that own it, But I think it’s safe to say that not everyone that owns a Wii owns a DS and quite frankly I just feel like that’s very backwards.  Adding more confusion to fray is the fact that a game like Dr. Mario Rx comes with the option to send your friend(s) a demo of the game if you’ve purchased it yourself, but a game like LostWinds or Final Fantasy: My Life as a King does not?  Color me confused.  It hasn’t been said officially what Nintendo’s strategy is, but any stance in the realm of giving gamers some sort of demo of any game is a welcome one, I’d say especially for lesser known devs.  While I can’t say that this garners a thumbs down, it is just really confusing.