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Nintendo Wii Lacks Web Browser And Two Channels At Launch

Whilst the Nintendo Wii is set to make its long awaited début in the United States this weekend, news has filtered through that suggests the revolutionary new console is set to lack a few of its proposed components at launch.

Online news publication Gamesindustry.biz states that highly anticipated console won’t come equipt with the proposed ‘News Channel’ or the ‘Weather Channel’ which were both set to become an integral part of the Wii experience.

The Associated Press backed ‘News Channel’ isn’t set to début until January 27th 2007, whilst the region specific weather channel won’t be available for consumer use until December 20th, which is just in time for Christmas.

What is set to be a far larger blow to prospective Wii owners is that the intuitive Opera based Wii web-browser is still without a proposed release date, although Nintendo have stated that more details regarding web access will be provided within the coming months.

Source

Wiinjuries!

The folks over at 1Up.com have put together an entertaining list of the various types of injuries that you could sustain while playing the Wii. I know… not really news, but I got a kick out of it! I figure that that’s probably mostly because I personally know quite a few people who are sadly lacking in the whole “common sense” thing!

The Wii comes with about seventeen pages of warnings about using the Wiimote without the wrist strap. The thing actually includes a sensor that can tell when you’re not using it properly, electronically alerting Nintendo H.Q. whenever you’re breaching the warranty. Trust me, they can and will exercise their legal right to release the wards binding Hiroshi Yamauchi into retirement so he can go to your house, judo-chop the top of your head off and feast upon your living brain.

But we know gamers. Ain’t nobody going to remember to slip that goofy strap around their wrist. Hell, you’ll make fun of any pansy friends who actually do use the thing. As a public service we’ve taken it upon ourselves to explore all the dangerous possibilities of improper Wii-mote use. At least three interns lost their lives making this feature, but if we can scare even a single gamer into Wiiing responsibly it’ll be worth their sacrifice.

Wii Commercial Conquers YouTube!

The official 30-second Wii commercial released by Nintendo has become the most viewed video over at YouTube!

This video shatters previous most-watched game video scores. Daily winners usually chart between 20,000-60,000 views; the Wii commercial? It’s been viewed 670,000 times — and counting — making it the most watched video anywhere on YouTube.

On top of claiming the most-viewed spot, the Wii commercial has also bagged 39 YouTube honors and has become the 14th “most linked” video in YouTube history.

From the time that quote was written and the time that I actually surfed over to watch the commercial, the number of views has sky-rocketed to 897,309 and I’m sure it’s still climbing!

Feel free to check out the commercial yourself!

Nintendo Press Release - VC games every Monday, News and Weather channels to become operational later

Nintendo’s new Wii(TM) video game system not only changes how people play games, but redefines how they interact with both the system and their televisions. With the Wii Menu, Nintendo offers a gateway to new experiences through a collection of interactive channels people can use to customize their gaming and entertainment options.

The Wii Menu serves as the main portal to the different functions of Wii, and is designed to evolve throughout the life of the system. Some functions can be used right out of the box and more will roll out during the next few weeks and into next year, with content continually changing over time. Wii goes on sale in the Americas Nov. 19 at an MSRP of $249.99.

The diversity of the Wii Menu has something for both gamers and non-gamers,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “The options exist to help introduce current non-players to Wii and help us bring gaming to the masses.

On launch day, players who want to play a Wii game or a Nintendo GameCube(TM) game simply pop in the disc, aim their motion-sensitive Wii Remote(TM) at the Wii Menu and click on the Disc Channel to start the game. It’s that simple. But some of the real fun with the Wii Menu comes with customization. The Mii(TM) Channel lets users create caricatures of themselves (or anyone else) that can be used first in Wii Sports(TM), a collection of five sports games packed in with the Wii system. Up to 10 Mii characters can be stored in a single Wii Remote, and players can carry them to a friend’s house and populate multiple Wii systems.

Using the Photo Channel, users can explore their creative talents by developing a slide show or showing off their best shots in an easy, fun way. With an SD memory card from a digital camera, users can display their photos on their televisions and perform basic editing and manipulation.

The Wii Shop Channel serves as Wii’s online storefront, where visitors can redeem Wii Points(TM) to download games or other items. Users need a high-speed Internet connection to access the Wii Shop Channel and choose from at least 12 classic Virtual Console(TM) games that will be ready to play on launch day. Some of the games a player can download include: Donkey Kong(R) (NES(R)), based on the arcade game of the same name; SimCity(R) (SNES(TM)), where players get to build a city from the ground up, being responsible for each decision they make; Super Mario 64(R), the first-ever true 3-D game, which changed the face of gaming forever; Sonic the Hedgehog(R) (Genesis(R)), the fastest blue hedgehog on Earth whips through hair-raising loop-de-loops and into dizzying dives; and Bomberman(R) ‘93 (TurboGrafx16(TM)), the exciting, powered-up version that followed the original Bomberman(R).

More Virtual Console games will become available weekly every Monday following launch and by year’s end, gamers will be able to pick from a library of 30 or more classic games from the Nintendo Entertainment System(R), Super NES(R), Nintendo(R) 64, Sega Genesis(TM) and TurboGrafx16 consoles. Users buy Wii Points at retail or with a credit card in the Wii Shop Channel and redeem their Wii Points to download the classic games. NES games start at 500 Wii Points, Super NES games start at 800 Wii Points and Nintendo 64 games start at 1,000 Wii Points. Sega Genesis games start at 800 Wii Points and TurboGrafx16 games start at 600 Wii Points.

The Wii Shop Channel is also where users will go to download the Opera browser that will let them surf the Internet from the comfort of their couches on Wii’s Internet Channel. More information about the availability of the browser will be released in the coming weeks.

On Dec. 20, Nintendo will roll out the Forecast Channel. Users will be able to access free local weather information, which is continually updated. Users can access worldwide weather information by browsing a 3-D globe. Weather information will be supplied by Weathernews. A high-speed Internet connection is required to access the Forecast Channel.

Then on Jan. 27, the Wii Menu News Channel will make headlines with the latest news from around the world provided by the Associated Press. A high-speed Internet connection is also needed to access the News Channel.

For more information about Wii and the Wii Menu, visit Wii.com.

Game Releases - Week of Nov. 13

With the release of the Wii rapidly approaching, I can actually start my weekly post of the upcoming games. Sure, you may not be able to buy the system until this Sunday… but you might be able to get your hands on a couple of games if the stores in your area are stocking early. The following titles should be available either now or with the launch of the system:

- The Ant Bully
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Barnyard
- Call of Duty 3
- Cars
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
- Excite Truck
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
- GT Pro Series
- Happy Feet
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Madden NFL 07
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
- Metal Slug Anthology
- Monster 4×4: World Circuit
- Need for Speed Carbon
- Open Season
- Rampage: Total Destruction
- Rapala Tournament Fishing!
- Rayman: Raving Rabbids
- Red Steel
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent
- Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
- Trauma Center: Second Opinion
- World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions

Super Smash Bros Brawl Slated For May?

The thought of participating in a bout of the latest inclusion to the sublime Super Smash Bros franchise within the next five months sounds almost too good to be true.

This enticingly sweet rumour stemmed forth from no other than the charismatic Matt Casamassina from the established gaming website IGN, who let slip in a recent chat session that the title is currently penciled in for a May 2007 release.

Now the big question on many inquisitive lips is whether or not this was Matt’s intrepid insider knowledge coming into play, or whether this was just good old fashioned well educated guess. Unfortunately your guess is as good as mine…

Wii to get Major Marketing Campaign

With the launch date of the Wii rapidly approaching, Nintendo has plans to spend upwards of $200 million dollars in their attempt to overthrow both the XBox 360 and the upcoming PS3 in the second generation console war. Up until now, most of the marketing for the system has been by word of mouth, but as of this coming Wednesday, November 15th you can expect commercials to hit a tv near you.

About 80 percent of advertising for Wii will target adults in an attempt to expand the video-game market beyond children and teens that have been Nintendo’s traditional market, said George Harrison, the company’s senior vice president for marketing. Nintendo will spend the $200 million during the next 12 months.

This is to be Nintendo’s largest ad campaign ever, over-shadowing the marketing previously done when the GameCube was released by a massive 20%. The decision was made to up the budget for the Wii after the GameCube was badly trounced by the PS2, selling about 11.7 million units to the 35.6 million units sold by Sony.

Check out the full article here.

Wii: “Best of What’s New” at Popular Science

Nintendo sure is set to make some major money this coming holiday season. First, the DS Lite had an awesome showing in Time Magazine’s prestigious Gadget of the Year awards, coming in second, and now the Wii blows away the competition by bagging Popular Science’s Best of What’s New for 2006:

Remember when videogames were fun? When the controllers had only a couple buttons and you didn’t have to spend an hour learning the seven-step finger dance for “walk?” Nintendo does, so it took a step back, looked at its superpowered competitors, and took a totally different path with its new console, Wii.

The Wii was thrown into the Home Entertainment category of the competition, beating out other products such as televisions, music systems, speakers and blu-ray systems. Good job Nintento! And to think that this was mostly accomplished via word of mouth…

Little Known Wii Facts (maybe)

The folks over at Joystiq have gone ahead and put together a Top 10 List of things that you may not have known about the Wii:

1. It doesn’t play CDs, but it plays AVIs off your digital camera’s SD card.
2. The flaps that protect the Gamecube controllers and memory card slots are removable.
3. Wii Sports includes training and workout modes.
4. You can let one remote control all four players in Wii Sports: Tennis.
5. It takes five pieces of heart to make a heart container in Zelda: Twilight Princess
6. The box includes two clear plastic holders: one for the sensor bar and another that acts as a stabilizer for the thick, gray console stand
7. When used as a pointer, the Wii detects how far the remote is from the sensor bar.
8. The system keeps track of your cumulative play time for all games, and logs it on your Wii’s daily message board.
9. The standard A/V cables that have worked on every Nintendo system since the SNES do not work on the Wii (the system-side input is different)
10. The system doubles as a great whiteboard.

Hmm… I never figured on using the Wii as a whiteboard, I could see that it might make a good message system. Pardon me while I run out and pick up some whiteboard markers and an eraser!

PlayStation 3 Vs Nintendo Wii: The Game Cases

Whilst one console sports a design that’s reminiscent of the style and flair of an Apple product, the other resembles a shiny matt black George Foreman grill, but how do the game cases compare for each competing console?

Well the PlayStation 3 game casing made its début via online gaming publication IGN yesterday, and truth be told didn’t initially impress. Coming across as a hybrid, encompassing design flair from both the PSP and the PlayStation 2 the game casing looked, well, rather cheap with an obvious plastic feel to it - not really the show-piece you want for a console costing in excess of four hundred pounds.

Now to the other extreme we have the Nintendo Wii game casing, something that’s sure to turn the heads of the more image concious consumer out there. Taking design cues from Steve Jobs himself, the Wii game casing looks as though it was a direct fusion of Nintendo’s unabashed love for Apple, and it’s overall love for simplicity, therefore creating what many will see as a break through for game-case design.

PlayStation 3 box-art

Nintendo Wii box-art

New Smash Bros footage to debut at Nintendo World 2006

Nintendo World 2006 is set to play host to exclusive new footage of Masahiro Sakurai latest masterpiece Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

The news was made publicly available via the the official Japanese Super Smash Brothers Web site which states that the forthcoming Nintendo World 2006 event will be the first time eager gamers will be able to witness new characters such as Metal Gears Solid Snake, and Metroids Zero Suit Samus in real-time game footage.

The highly anticipated Nintendo World 2006 event is due to take place in Japan in three different locations, which take place on four separate dates: Nagoya on November 3, Osaka on November 12, and Makuhari Messe November 25 - home of the infamous Toyko Gameshow.

What will come as a disappointment to many is that the title won’t be playable at the event, but much like it was at E3 the event will be broadcast on large display Televisions providing gamers with captivating footage, which is sure to get the adrenaline pumping for the soon-to-be-announced release date.

Theme Your Nintendo Wii

The Nintendo Nsider Forums were alight with requests as three posters with some impressive Photoshop skills went about creating custom themed Wii designs using the popular photo manipulation program.

Themes that were requested and designed ranged fro