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Wii

North America

Nintendo Channel

by Steven Rodriguez - March 2, 2008, 10:23 pm EST
Total comments: 13

It's the Wii channel you didn't know you needed. Read how the Nintendo Channel will make the Wii a lot more useful, and see the channel in action with our video walkthrough.

Minna no Nintendo Channel, or Everyone's Nintendo Channel, has been available in Japan since late last year. Nintendo says it will release the channel in other parts of the world later this year. The features and potential of the channel, however, make me wonder why it's taking Nintendo so long to bring it over here. We here at NWR have been putting the channel through its paces, and now we can tell you how it really works.


See how the Nintendo Channel works in our video walkthough. For a full explanation of
the channel's features, keep reading!

The first thing you'll see when entering the channel from the Wii Menu is a video montage that contains video of games nearing a release or that have just been released. This video isn't the same every time you enter the channel; it can be updated every couple of weeks, to highlight newer releases.

The opening video is the gateway to the channel's starting page, the game trailer menu. By canceling out of the starting video, which will minimize it to the upper-right corner of the screen, you can browse a selection of game trailers, television commercials, and other promotional videos with your Wii Remote. Each video is marked as a Wii (blue circle) or Nintendo DS (red squares) title. New videos have blinking icons and a scrolling "New" indicator behind it when you highlight them. Some items, marked with a boring gray dot, are notices from Nintendo. One such notice I saw was an apology from Nintendo for the late delay of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Selecting a video will open up the video player. Unlike Xbox Live or PlayStation Network videos, which must be downloaded to your hard drive, Wii videos are streamed from Nintendo's servers. After a pause to pre-load the video, it begins playing. Clicking on the video will maximize it to fit your television screen, and clicking it again will return the video to its regular size.

Backing out to the video list while the video is still playing will minimize it to the upper corner of the screen (like the opening video), where it will continue to play. The feature makes it possible to watch a video and browse for other videos at the same time. If you decide to watch a video all the way through without backing out, the game will continuously sound an annoying beep at the end, letting you know that the video is done playing (in case you couldn't see that with the on-screen timer).

Because the video is a stream, it relies on Nintendo's servers and your Internet connection for fast startup and smooth playback. There have been a few times when I waited what seemed like forever for a video to begin playing. Other times, videos would stop a few times because the download speed wasn't fast enough to keep ahead of the playback. It's not the most ideal way to deliver content to a console, especially since you can't pause or rewind videos like you would be able to on a video site like YouTube. For the most part, however, it works very well for what it is.

Actually, I think streaming is a better way to view game videos, compared to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users being required to download them. It's a lot easier to pick something you want to watch, and then be able to watch it right away instead of needing to wait for a download (or multiple downloads) to finish. Because it's streaming video you don't need to delete anything, either. While the video quality of the streaming videos isn't as clear or sharp as it is on the high-def consoles, it's more than adequate to get a decent representation of what a game would look like on your television screen. It's not like you really need to see Wii Fit or Super Smash Bros. Brawl commercials in 480p, anyway.

At the bottom of the video player screen, you can click on a button that will take you to a page showing information about the game you were viewing. These pages have all sorts of nuggets, including the game box art, release date info, content rating (CERO in Japan, ESRB in America, PEGI in Europe, etc.), number of players, controller compatibility, and more. It's essentially all the info you'd find on the back of a game box, but better organized and more useful.

These game pages contain more than just basic info. Scrolling down past the game information section will reveal an area with pie charts, percentages, and links to other games. It's here where the Nintendo Channel becomes a lot more useful ... and could very well be the key to preventing bad games from clogging the Wii game library.

All games playable on a current Nintendo console—that's Wii, DS, Virtual Console, and WiiWare games—have individual game pages within the Nintendo Channel. Games that have been released have these percentages and pie graphs. The graphs show the ratio of people who would recommend a game to other people; essentially, they are game reviews from people who have actually played them.

After playing a game for at least an hour, users can submit a game recommendation via the pie graph button in the lower corner of the screen (while in the pie graph section of a game they have played). A mini-questionnaire appears, asking the primary user's gender, their age, and whether or not they would recommend the game for gamers vs. casual players, as well as other questions. With user permission, Nintendo also collects data on how long games are played via the play history feature in the console and uses that information to help determine how popular certain games are. This area of a game's profile can also provide links to the pages of other games that are similar in style or popularity.

There's no doubt that Sony and Microsoft collect gameplay usage data on their systems. It makes good business sense to see what games customers are playing. Nintendo is going a step further by making this information public, and essentially allowing ordinary consumers to peer review games. This is, without a doubt, the most brilliant thing Nintendo has done with the Wii thus far.

The ramifications of this feature are obvious. People who "vote" on a game that's not very good will likely have a low playtime rating. Wii owners who may be interested in purchasing said bad game would see that it's not very popular with other Wii owners, which could very well prevent them from buying that game themselves. This could ultimately dissuade publishers from recklessly releasing bad games, since now the general audience will have some way of gaging a game's quality before they buy. Conversely, lesser-known gems can get better recognition (and possibly better sales) if it has a higher popularity rating than similar games.

The crazy thing about this feature in the Nintendo Channel is that it it's only a part of a game page. Not only can you read the game's basic information and research what others who have played it think of it, but toward the bottom of the page are links to all of the game videos that the channel has available for viewing. The start page just shows the most recent videos, but if you want to see all the trailers commercials and whatnot for an individual game, you just need to scroll down to the bottom of its game page for one-stop viewing of everything that's available for it.

The bottom part of the game pages have more than video links. If you're viewing the game page for a Virtual Console or WiiWare title, a link at the very bottom of the list will take you directly to the Wii Shop Channel page for that title, where you can buy the game without needing to search for it. If you're viewing the page of a DS game that has a demo available, you can jump straight to the DS demo area of the Nintendo Channel and download it right on the spot.

That's right; the Nintendo Channel also has the ability to send game demos to your Nintendo DS, using the Wii as the download station. You can find demos from the game pages, but you're better off going directly to the DS demo listing. You can get it to by hitting the menu button at the top of the video listing page.

In the DS demo menu, there are a half-dozen or so demos ready for you to download. All you need to do to grab one is select it from the menu, go to Download Play on your DS, and select the download on the handheld once it sees that the Wii is broadcasting it. After the download is completed, you have the option to jump to the game information page on the Wii if you want to learn more about the game you just sampled, just like you can while watching a video.

With all the games that are available across four different formats, it's unrealistic to think that every single game will have video or a demo available. To make sure it's easy for people to find games they may be interested in the Nintendo Channel has two more tools in its arsenal.

The first one is a listing of upcoming releases. It shows all the Wii, VC, WiiWare, and DS games that will be available in the next few weeks. The list is sortable by format, so if you just want to see what Wii games are coming out you can select that filter to make browsing the list easier. Again, selecting any game will take you to the game page and show you the basic information and any related videos.

The second tool is the general game database that will let you search for games by genre, publisher, and game system. The sorting options here are even more customizable, allowing you to search for a specific game system within the Virtual Console. If you just wanted to see all of the Genesis games available, for example, you can set the search to display them by themselves.

Because the Nintendo Channel is an actual Wii Menu channel, and not a modified web browser like the Wii Shop Channel, navigating and searching is faster and more user-friendly. In fact, you'd probably be better off searching for VC games through the Nintendo Channel, reading up on the information, checking out what other owners of the game think of it, and then using the link at the bottom of the page to jump directly to the purchase page in the Wii Shop Channel. It would probably take half the time to find new VC games to purchase. The only bummer about that is once you leave the Nintendo Channel you can't go back to it without selecting it from the Wii Menu again. It's not a big deal, all things considered.

What Nintendo has created in the Nintendo Channel is an important tool designed for the general gaming population to be better informed about the game library on all of Nintendo's platforms. As a reader of Nintendo World Report (and other game websites), you take knowing about upcoming games for granted. The majority of Wii owners probably don't hear about games until they see them on store shelves and read the back of the box. Nintendo is giving everyone the avenue to educate themselves on making smart purchasing decisions in a world where not everyone knows what they're buying until they start playing it. This will be especially important for downloadable games.

I can see why Nintendo is dead serious when it says it wants as many people as possible to connect their Wii consoles to the Internet. With the tools and features of the Nintendo Channel, where everyone has easy access to important game information, why wouldn't Nintendo want people to see that? It can only help them in the long term. Oh, and I guess having game videos, DS demos, and other bells and whistles to play with is cool, too.

Talkback

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterMarch 03, 2008

"The features and potential of the channel, however, make me wonder why it's taking Nintendo so long to bring it over here."

Because Nintendo doesn't give a crap about its audience around the world. It really should be called "Nobody's Nintendo"...

...OK, now that I got the bad imitation out of my system I believe the reason its taking longer to release the channel around the world is because Nintendo has to prep it up so that the channel is relevant to that country's audience.

For example, in the US we have the never ending "Wii would like to play" campaign, so Nintendo has to edit trailers so they are like the ones shown on TV. Not only that, the game releases are totally different, so they need to write info on all of them. Same deal with the DS demos.

What I am wondering is, will Nintendo be bold enough to showcase some riske and mature games? Its clear that they want EVERYBODY to learn about new releases. So that means that little Billy saw a trailer for Bully, bought it, mom saw it and panicked and when she finds out how he learned about it, bitching time...

This sounds really great and makes me mad that I'm going to have to make room for it.

famicomplicatedJames Charlton, Associate Editor (Japan)March 03, 2008

You reckon this will ever come out for the States?
Nintendo are always hesitant to answer that question...

Those DS download stations are everywhere here in Japan,so it's a nice extension of that.
Can anyone tell me if they are in the US as well?

I'm guessing if they aren't, then don't expect the big N to start doing them in stores or as part of this channel anytime soon...

The GameStop I go to has one, I think most of them do, and I think some Wal Marts do as well. When I went in to buy Professor Layton I got into a conversation with the guy working there and he suggested I try out the Ninja Gaiden demo, but I didn't have the time. Nintendo has said that this channel will come out here, what they won't say is when.

pSYCO-gAMER321March 03, 2008

I got my Japanese Wii since November and I downloaded the Everyone's Nintendo Channel and been there quite a few times. After that, I stopped for a while. However the impression makes it seem more more enjoyable then my impression, but ya know, does the job on marketting.

NephilimMarch 03, 2008

my main problem is the channel doesnt have any good ds demo's, they are all kenji/brain training demo's :(

planetidiotMarch 03, 2008

This sounds like a very good feature.  User driven feedback for games tied directly to the console could seriously stem the tide of crapware on the Wii. 

I think the streaming video is a matter of necessity rather than a feature (due to the Wii's famous next-to-no storage space).  While not "having to" download a video is a nice option, you can't get high quality streaming video very reliably with most people's internet connections.  My feeling is these will be highly compressed, shrunk, stuttery or some combination thereof.  I could be wrong, but it's hard to judge whether the quality is higher than youtube when watching them on... youtube :)

CericMarch 03, 2008

For the record you can now stream a video while downloading on the PS3.  Don't know about the 360.

This would be a little bit interesting.

Nick DiMolaNick DiMola, Staff AlumnusMarch 03, 2008

Hopefully this will be built out into a Wii demo channel as well. Seems like in it's current state though that it is pretty adequate. Anything that may have some positive effects on the quality of games on the Wii would be much appreciated. Hopefully as Windy said, it also gives games that are under appreciated some more of the spotlight.

NinGurl69 *hugglesMarch 03, 2008

lol metroid preview channel

decoymanMarch 03, 2008

Hey, nice job on such an interesting and in-depth article, Windyman. This is a channel I've been really interested in, and the video is a great touch, and really well done.

Kudos. I think there's only one thing I can think of that would make it even better:

if you had narrated for the video. Since I don't understand Japanese, I couldn't tell what you were doing a lot of the time. Even after you clicked through, sometimes I couldn't even tell based on what the new screen said (the only time this wasn't a problem as when it was a video, of course).

But even so, the write-up filled in a lot of holes. It's just hard to read a long article while watching a beefy video :P

redgiementalMarch 03, 2008

This channel should be very useful for the average Wii owner and the more hardcore alike. Plus I am kinda looking forward to getting some revenge on games that let me down with their shoddiness and also hopefully really good overlooked games get some free advertising out of it. Zack and Wiki being the one I have in mind myself. A really good feature I look forward to enjoying.

mastroMarch 05, 2008

I am hoping its because its in Japanese but it looks confusing to me right now. Hoping they tidy up the interface a bit in time.

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Genre
Developer Nintendo
Players1
OnlineYes

Worldwide Releases

na: Nintendo Channel
Release May 07, 2008
PublisherNintendo
jpn: Minna no Nintendo Channel
Release Nov 26, 2007
PublisherNintendo
eu: Nintendo Channel
Release May 30, 2008
PublisherNintendo

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