New Wii Channel now available

By Mike Koss | May 7, 2008

So as we all know, the Nintendo Channel was announced last month with US due-date of mid-May. Well, we must have hit mid-May because waiting for me when I got home from work tonight was a new update and the ability to download the Nintendo Channel. So far my experience has mixed reviews.

As with most things on the Wii, the download itself takes quite a bit of time before you’re even ready to experience whatever it is that’s waiting behind that to-be-opened door. After finally downloading it, I fire it up and experience a common occurence on any Wii Channel, except Mail or the Disc Channel, and that is waiting. I would have hoped by now that they could figure out how to load things faster, but alas its a click-and-wait experience.

Now the channel itself is quite nifty. All kinds of videos demoing currently available or upcoming games for both the Wii and the DS. This is nice since I can now, from the comfort of my sofa, figure out what I want to buy at my next trip to the store. I heard over on MTV Multiplayer that if you have the Internet Channel, it will detect it and allow you to click to an online purchase of the game, but I got my Wii late and refuse to pay $5 for an internet browser that (almost) everyone else got for free.

I watched a couple of demo videos and liked the presentation, although it would have been nice if there was a way to full-screen the video. Oh, and if the videos didn’t buffer like I was trying to watch them over a 56K modem. I’m going to pin the buffering on the fact that since the channel is still new, the servers are going to be under a bit of load right now. But it was still nice to be able to show my wife actual gameplay videos of games I’m trying to convince her to buy.

There is downloadable content, if you own a DS. Right now you can download demos for DS games. There is supposed to be support for Wii demos in the future as well. That’s one thing I am definitely looking forward to. As many people have stated when the Wii was first coming about, it’s always intriguing to know how the control scheme for a game will play out. Being able to test it before plunking your hard-earned $50 down is going to be a great boon to know if a game is even playable.

The last item of note is that besides Nintendo pimping their own product, there is an occasional interview of sorts. Right now, there’s atleast a video with Shigeru Miyamoto available for watching. It would also be nice to see things like developer videos for upcoming games, ala Super Smash Bros. Dojo.

Overall, I’m partially excited about the new channel. I’m hoping that it this isn’t short-lived like after pulling the wrapping paper of a Christmas/birthday/anniversary present and seeing the newly acquired item only to be let down by the actual usage.