|
Welcome to the final in our six-week Wii Special. Although
many of you have requested that the feature remain, Nintendo no
longer have video footage to supply us with for forthcoming
editions, and so, we’ll have to see what the response will be like
to moving to simply a Wii Weekly Rundown,  similar to the Xbox360
Weekly Rundown that has proven popular. It’s your opinion that
counts, so get over to the Electronic Theatre Forum and get
your voice heard!
Everyone
who’s anyone in the world of Wii will already know the big news
this week. Finally, we have that price and release date, as well as
a hint towards the Launch Line-Up. US gamers will receive the system
on November 19th, 2006, the Japanese will see their launch on
December 2nd, 2006, and Australia
will celebrate Wii Day on December 7th, 2006, - at a slightly cheaper price-point than ourselves in
Europe. But of course, the most important date is that of December 8th, 2006, when we ourselves will be able to purchase a Wii console,
including Wii Sports, for only £179.99 (RRP).
While The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess has been
confirmed for European launch, we are yet waiting to see what else
Nintendo will be letting us get our hands on. A handful of
Third-Party releases have also been confirmed for launch –
including Red Steel and RayMan: Raving Rabbids – but
currently, Nintendo are still remaining relatively tight-lipped.
With Metroid Prime 3: Corruption now officially delayed in
all territories till 2007, WarioWare: Smooth Moves arriving
“just after launch”, and the first Wii Pokemon release
also coming early next year, maybe we’ll see the likes of ExciteTruck
and Project H.A.M.M.E.R. supporting the next adventure in the
land
of Hyrule?
Nintendo have also revealed a few more details on their
Virtual Console service this week, with a total of fifteen titles
being made available to European gamers during the Launch Window,
and between five-and-ten new titles being made available every
month. Prices will be tiered, with NES
games available for 500 "Wii Points" at £3.50/€5, SNES
titles will cost 800 Wii Points (£5.60/€8) and Nintendo64
releases will set you back 1000 Wii Points, or £7/€10. The
pricing for titles on other formats - SEGA Mega-Drive, TurboGrafx
and MSX - has yet to be confirmed. You'll be able to pick up Point
Cards at Electronic Theatre retail outlets, with 2000 Points
weighing in with an RRP of approx. £14/€20.
Another revelation is that of the unique services provided by
Wii. Taking the idea of the Xbox360’s OS Blades set-up
one-step-further, Wii will launch with a series of “Channels”
available to the user out-of-the-box. A Weather Channel and a News
Channel will make for default, as well as the highly intriguing Mii
Channel – the service to rival Microsoft’s Xbox360 GamerTag
System. Here, gamers not only create a GamerTag, but a 3D Character
Model for use in certain games – namely Wii Sports – and
also for use whilst waiting in online lobbies for specific games,
although which games this will be compatible with have not yet been
confirmed.
A revelation that Nintendo had been keeping pretty close to
their chest – and one that can be seen a both a turn-around for
the company and a much needed new-found level of maturity – an
Opera Browser will be immediately available for download, allowing
gamers full access to the internet on the system. Although no
price has yet been confirmed, many may remember Nintendo’s stance
on the internet some five-or-six years ago, when they stated that
they would not allow full internet access on any of their systems
due to the “dangers” of the internet and children. How times
have changed – with Nintendo now leading on this front, with their
two flagship systems utilising their own unique variations of the
Opera Browser.
Another minor note that may or may not be of any relevance,
depending on your views of the videogames industry, is that of the
recent arrival of Wii on US TV air-time. Yes, Wii is already hitting
the all-important daytime TV of the  US
– in specific, on Ellen: The Ellen Degeneres Show. Many of
you may know Ellen Degeneres for her ‘90’s hit Sitcom, Ellen.
Not one for names, last week, Ellen featured a guest by the name of
Ben Underwood. Ben is a fourteen-year-old who has been blind since
birth, and developed his own sense of awareness via a similar system
to that which bats and dolphins use – clicking his tongue and
measuring the echo, or time it takes for the sound to return, in
effect to distance. Ben was rewarded by a bin full of Nintendo
goodies; a NintendoDS Lite for himself and each of his four
siblings, a handful of games and a Nintendo Wii – a system which
executives have stated that, given the in-built Speaker in the Wii
Remote, will be perfect for Ben to adapt to. The bigger picture of
all this of course, would be the fact that Nintendo are already
beginning to drip-feed the name into society, making the public at
least aware of its existence, if not yet what it’s capable of.
|
