
If you find your Wii's disc slot glowing this morning, don't worry -- it's just a love letter from Nintendo in the form of the Nintendo Channel! Already available in Japan, this new channel that delivers videos, game information, Nintendo DS demos, and more is now available for download on your Wii.
Word of warning -- just because you get a message from Nintendo on your Wii that is accompanied by an "Update" button, don't think that you can simply click on that and get the content they're talking about. No, ma'am. That will simply waste a few moments of your life while the Wii looks for a firmware update that doesn't exist; you're going to have to go into the Wii Shop Channel to find this new download.
Since you may be stuck at work and might not be home for another eight hours, I went for a spin with the channel this morning on your behalf. Hit the jump for some details.
After the small download (which went surprisingly quickly), the new channel was placed right on the Wii "dashboard" next to my Virtual Console copy of
Splatterhouse ... which is the perfect place for it. After booting it up and being treated to a few screens telling me a bit about the channel itself, I was asked if I wanted to opt in or out of receiving commercial messages from Nintendo. The novelty of the glowing blue disc slot has worn off, so I've opted out; presumably the system will notify you when new demos, video, etc. are available.
Next, the channel decided to launch right into a video, which took ages to load. I stared at spinning bubbles for about three minutes before the streaming picture started to play. It's simply a promotional video for all things Nintendo -- things like WiiWare, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, and the Nintendo DS.
The video quality is serviceable, but leaves much to be desired; think YouTube on your television. On my widescreen set, it only took up a portion of the screen; by clicking on the video, you can enlarge it, but it's still only displayed in standard 4:3. It should be noted that once the video did start to play, it actually stopped again halfway through, and I had to stare at some more spinning bubbles while I waited for the rest of the video to buffer.
There are already a handful of videos available, but it's pretty disappointing that there's nothing "new" here. There are videos introducing WiiWare ("What's WiiWare?"), an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about
Wii Fit, and promotional videos for a few first- and third-party games.
The Nintendo Channel does have a pretty great feature built into it that will allow you to find information on games for the Wii and Nintendo DS. Sorting through the new releases, I clicked on Electronic Arts' Boom Blox and brought up a slew of details like its release date, publisher information, and number of players. Videos for the game can also be viewed if any are available. (There were none available for Boom Blox at the time.)
You're also able to make game recommendations based on any title you've played for more than an hour. Clicking on this option, I was greeted by a depressing list of only 20 games. I've owned the Wii since launch and I've only played 20 games for more than an hour each — I'm not sure what else to say about that. The list of games included both Wii and Virtual Console titles, and I can only assume it will extend to WiiWare titles as well.

Games are rated based on a number of questions which you'll answer with the Wii remote. You'll be asked who enjoyed the game the most based on sex and age, whether or not the game appeals to a casual or hardcore audience, and whether the game is fun alone or with friends. Finally, you'll be asked to choose -- based on a slider -- how highly you'd recommend a game; as you pull the slider a little drum roll plays, which is a cute and "very Nintendo" touch. It should be noted that once a game is rated, it's removed from the list.
Finally, and here's the part we've all been waiting for -- the Nintendo Channel will allow you to download Nintendo DS demos! Yes, just like the retail download stations, the games will only stay in your Nintendo DS memory until it's shut off but ... Nintendo DS demos! The following is a list of games currently available on the service:
Brain Age 2
Flash Focus
Crosswords DS
Jam Sessions
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends
Disney Friends
Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

I went ahead and downloaded Raving Rabbids 2, and it was a snap. Once I opened up communication between by Wii and Nintendo DS, the demo downloaded in less than a minute to my handheld.
So there you have it -- a short tour of the Nintendo Channel. Some things still leave much to be desired (the poor streaming video quality and slight connection issues, for instance), but there's a lot of potential here for Nintendo to offer a easy-to-use and rather useful service for Wii owners. Let's just hope they deliver on that potential.
05/07/2008 09:32
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05/07/2008 09:39
otherwise, this is just wasting space on a dusty system.
05/07/2008 09:40
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05/07/2008 09:46
Have you been yelling at your Wii Nick? Cause maybe it's trying to get it's revenge for that time you hit it. I told you you gots to love your woman tenderly Nick, then she treat you right.
05/07/2008 09:47
And just a tip...when doing the DS demo downloads, wait until the screen says "Transmitting". I started up my DS while it said "Loading", thinking that once it was ready, the DS would find my Wi and start the download. But after 5 minutes of sitting there, I restarted the DS. The download then took barely a minute.
05/07/2008 09:47
"Who do you think this game best suits? Choices: Anyone or Gamers"
Gamers aren't anyone!
The distinction is funny to me :)
05/07/2008 09:51
Maybe its only first party publishing, an close virtual console friends? I can rate Blazing Lazers and Shining Force, but SSX Blur doesn't come up at all . . .
05/07/2008 09:58
Okay, I thought I was the only one. I thought the same thing...only 1st part games? Nope...The Godfather is there, and it's a 3rd party game. Pretty sure Ravin' Rabbids 1 was also there.
But, No More Heroes isn't. And I know for a fact that I've played for more than an hour. Hell, collecting those damn balls has set me back at least an hour.
Odd.
05/07/2008 10:00
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05/07/2008 10:05
Really happy about the DS demos, I hope they keep them regularly updated. I make an apple pie with Mama!
05/07/2008 10:22
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05/07/2008 10:37
I've been waiting for this. I hope they flesh it out more, it could be the most interesting channel on the Wii. I'm really hoping for at least a bi-weekly update to the DS demos...
05/07/2008 10:43
05/07/2008 10:46
I like the DS demos function because I'm lazy.
05/07/2008 10:48
05/07/2008 10:54
(just got my wii)
I then went to google and typed in -
"wii off blue light flashing"
found a forum where someone else asked about this and learned it was to notify me of a message. I smiled. Of course I was too traumatized at that point to download anything, but will when I get home. Thanks for the write up, it made me smile :)
<3
05/07/2008 11:02
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05/07/2008 11:29
Oh, and Nick, I haad the Boom Blox video right away. Also, looks like they are pumping up videos of VC games, which is good.
05/07/2008 11:34
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05/07/2008 11:57
lol, you thought it was nintendo's version of the blue slit of death. That made my day, thanks.
05/07/2008 12:24
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05/07/2008 13:56
Can't say I experienced any of the quality problems you've reported. I played every video available and never had to wait longer that 20 seconds, with most videos loading in 5. Also, the video quality, in my opinion, is much higher than youtube. I actually compared the two because I've actually watched youtube on my TV with Internet channel. The Nintendo channel is LOADS better. Also, while some videos are still boxed after you full screen them, I found the majority I watched to take up all of my widescreen.
Anyway, beyond that, I've had so much fun with this channel today! Rating was fun and me and my GF did that part together. I liked the Shig interview about WiiFit. My GF was excited about it and I was kinda looking forward to it, but now be are both totally stoked! We had so much fun going through it, then when we went back to the main menu we checked our message section to see how long we spent on the channel – 2 hours slipped by! How about that-
Can't wait to see what they do with this channel! With this and WiiWare - what a great time to be a Nintendo Fan!
05/07/2008 14:29
yes exactly! haha
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05/07/2008 18:34
i rocked the shit out of that apple pie!
05/07/2008 21:19
It just doesn't seem interesting to me.
05/07/2008 22:29