Just the other day I was taking a break at work when one of the guys i worked with started talking about the Wii. He knew I was a video game geek so he started going on and on about how some lame party he was at was saved by a girl down the hall proclaiming she had a Wii in her apartment.
After talking he got the notion that he should buy his own Wii. He said it would be there for when his nieces and nephews come over but I could see right through him. I had to break the news to him that you can't just walk into a store and buy one, you have to actively look for them and it can take weeks to buy one. Not believing me he picked up the phone and started calling around.
After 20 minutes of calls he located a GameStop store two towns over that had one in stock. He called a friend of his who worked near there and asked him to get it for him. Before the friend could get there it was already sold. Yeah, he is still without a Wii.
Nintendo has just announced dates for new additions to the Wii Menu system:
- WiiWare (launches May 12): WiiWare is a new game download service for consumers which offers fresh game play experiences and new opportunities for creators. Creative new games will be added regularly from developers big and small.
This one is going to be inside the Shopping Channel and will offer people the chance to buy games in the same way the virtual Console titles work. My only concern is the size of these titles. The Wii only has 512MB of internal flash memory and you can not use the SD card for running Virtual console titles. If we are lucky nintendo will note this and allow us to download WiiWare titles to the SD card. - Wii Fit Channel (available May 19): This channel appears on the Wii Menu when people first use Wii Fit, which combines fun and fitness. It's an easy way for every member of the family to keep active and play together. In a first for a Wii game, owners of Wii Fit can access the channel to perform basic daily workouts and fitness checks, even if the Wii Fit game disc is not inserted.
I have been eagerly WiiWare to become available in the US, more so than the release of Wii Fit. I have to say being able to do some minor things without the Wii fit disc being in is also pretty cool.