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thousandfootwii-mote

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May 7, 2008 - Determined to keep its user base guessing, the Big N quietly launched the anticipated Nintendo Channel to U.S. based Wii owners this morning. (Most of us believed that the Channel would arrive after the debut of the company's anticipated WiiWare service, set to rock America on May 12, but Nintendo thankfully had other plans.) The Nintendo Channel is your one-stop destination for Wii and Nintendo DS video previews, information on products from both libraries, DS demos and more. We downloaded the Channel and took the service for a spin? We know Wii storage blocks are a hot commodity, so is it worth the space? The short answer is yes. Keep reading to find out why.
The Nintendo Channel is free of charge. You'll be able to download it very quickly from the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel, but be if you're running low on storage space you'll need to do some spring cleaning. The Nintendo Channel requires 122 blocks – bigger than the 53 blocks needed to keep the Everybody Votes Channel, but significantly smaller than the 233 blocks required to hang onto the Internet Channel. It took us about a minute to download the Channel and we were up and running a few moments later without any incident.

After booting the Channel, you will be treated to an intro "digest" video, a montage of footage from some of the big video previews currently featured on the service. It auto-plays and you can magnify it by pointing and clicking on it with the Wii remote. You can do this with all videos on the Channel to watch them in full-screen view. Of course, if you have a high-definition television, you will see lots of compression artifacting on zoomed-in videos, but on the plus side the footage streams instantly to your Wii.
The video list section makes up the bulk of the Channel, as it already features nine pages of video-based game previews, service walkthroughs, and even an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, who talks candidly about making Wii Fit. In the coming months, Nintendo is sure to feature first-look trailers of forthcoming games on the service.
In the upper-left corner of the screen, you can click on the wrench icon to change your settings at any time. You can opt in to receive commercial messages from the Channel on your Wii Message Board and you can also choose to turn on your data-sharing feature. If you do, Nintendo will receive information about your console, everything from your play history and recommendations for games to your Wii console settings. We wanted the Big N to see that we're completely out of system storage space so we chose to turn the data-sharing option on. If you fear Big Brother, you have the option to ignore it.
At the top of the page rests the 'Find Titles for You' icon, which houses the ability to view new titles (a release calendar), search by category or name, make a recommendation or, best of all, use the DS download service. The new titles section displays Wii and DS games have either released to retail in the last few weeks, or are on the verge of debuting in stores. You can click individually on the different titles to read game bios and watch videos when applicable. If you click on certain DS games, you might even be able to download a demo.
You can make a recommendation on the games played and Channels you've used for more than an hour and you can even recommend games and Channels to certain demographics. The Nintendo Channel compiles all user recommendations into handy pie charts.
The DS Download Service is very likely the most important feature of the Nintendo Channel, as you'll be able to search through and download demos of popular DS games. Currently, the service includes demos for Brain Age 2, Flash Focus, Crosswords DS, Jam Sessions, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Cooking Mama 2, Disney Friends and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. So if you own a DS and haven't yet sampled some of these titles, the DS Download service alone is worth the investment you'll make – nothing – to nab the Nintendo Channel. To download the games, you simply turn your DS on select DS Download Play and the demo will be transmitted wirelessly to your portable. Remember, though, as soon as you turn your DS off, the demo will be lost. The Nintendo Channel has a lot of promise, especially if the Big N really uses it as an avenue to preview upcoming games, showing never-before-seen videos and enabling users to download DS demos. We've nabbed a Nintendo-made tutorial video explaining all of the Channel's functionality, and we've also posted some direct-feed of our own. Check it all out and then download it for yourself.
I am really exited about this. But I'm curently away from wii so I can't download it until friday.

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Thanks younglink and toon, you ROCK!
I lift my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm:121

Greatheart

Friends: (13)

I just saw the intro video before I had leave. It looks good. This is one of the things that I have wanted from Nintendo

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"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Romans 3:23
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

Thank you, Ninty and Young Link.

TheVinh

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I've played some of the DS demos already. They're fun

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~Credit goes to YoUnG LiNk for this awesome sig~



"The path to hell is paved with good intentions..."

taco31

Friends: (30)

I have this new channel too it's really good. You can see upcoming videos of games and there are DS demos that you can download onto your DS. If anything this is one of Nintendo's (if even few) marketing masterpieces.

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Credit goes to YoUnG LiNk for the sigpic

pugluvr10

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i have this channel downloaded on my wii also!
It is a cool channel,hopefully they make more channels/games!