See that flashing blue light on your Wii?  No, it's not more spam from WiiLoaded's Cloud.  The Nintendo Channel has finally been released in the U.S. and can be purchased for free from the Wii Shop Channel.  Once you've installed it you will be shown a short intro video that contains various game footage as well as info about the upcoming WiiWare service.  After you get past the video and are brought to the main interface you will see pages of videos that you can browse.  Each video pertains to a specific service or game for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, or the Virtual Console.  The videos that you see are streamed from Nintendo's servers.  There are controls for the video that allow you to control the volume, view the video in full screen mode, as well as selecting a particular section of the video.  There is also the option to continue browsing while you watch the video and if you choose to do so the video will shrink and move to the top of the screen with the list below it.  It will remain that way until you select another video.

The Nintendo Channel has more than one function and another function is being able to browse the library by filtering the results.  You can select the videos to be shown by title, category, or type of gamer you are such as 'casual' or 'hardcore'.  These filter options can be found by clicking on the "more information" button that is located underneath each video.  After you have set up your preferences you will be taken to a page that will list items that fit your profile.  There you will find some links to the products that are listed and they can be viewed in the Internet Channel by clicking on them.

A third function is the ability to rate a game.  If there is a game that you have played for more than one hour that is on the list then you can give that game a rating.  You will then be asked some questions about the game such as "who do you think would enjoy this title?" and Nintendo will use your answers to make the filtering more reliable.  It's not really about if the game is great or not because you've only been playing it for an hour but is just there to give others an idea of what they have to look forward to and if it's the kind of game that they are interested in.

The fourth and last feature is a big one.  You can send demos of DS games to your Nintendo DS.  Gamers have been asking for this for quite a while now and their prayers are finally answered.  You can now try out the demo that you've been on the fence about.  Currently there are not so many titles available for download but the channel has just gone live within the last couple of hours and there will be more content added later.  So what are you waiting for?  Get to downloading!

Reported By: Will S.

This post was last modified: 05-07-2008 04:42 PM by Kindrik.

For anyone who is interested the DS demos are;

* Brain Age 2
* Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day
* Crosswords DS
* Jam Sessions
* Rayman Raving Rabbids
* Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends
* Disney Friends
* Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword


I WANT THAT JAM SESSIONS DEMO NIAOW.

I've sold my DS already but I would like to try out Brain Age 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Cooking Mama 2, and Ninja Gaiden. The others I've never heard of so not o sure about them.

B-b-b-but

JAMMMMM SESSSIOONSSSSS

Nope, never heard of it. What's it like? Guitar Hero/Rock Band kinda thing for the DS but with a turntable or something?

Ah, gonna check this out in a few, then. Totally into the Brain Age 2 and Cooking Mama 2 demos.

Urgh, yet more Europe delays...

ROFL.

Time to use my Wii..for once.

This post was last modified: 05-07-2008 12:59 PM by Cloud.

Ditto

Wii: The first console I own that I actually don't use

Basically it is a guitar.

You set chords to the D-Pad (You can switch between your two choosen chord sets by using L and R) and use the stylus to strum.

It's pretty realistic for what it is, it's not much of a 'game' and more of a tool.

They need to release a demo of Professor Layton...

Now thats a demo

but nao im hooked to Ninja Gaiden

but other than that the nin-channel is top notch

they did really well with it

Ohh!! Im going to have my DS and Wii meet. :]

The channel is not so terrible, it has potential. Releasing trailers of big upcoming titles there exclusively would be awesome.

Its pretty good, the DS games suck.

poor poor misinformed cloud

DS > PSP

BTW mana, really nice article, your stuff is always top notch

"Finallys"?

Here are my other comments:

"purchased for free"
Purchase- the acquisition of something for payment.
Free- costing nothing; gratuitous

"more than one function and another function"
Not the most effective way of wording this.

I'm too lazy to point out the other comments I have. Plus I keep getting distracted by oth-Wait, there's a Jam Sessions demo?!?!?!?

Edit: Wow, I didn't realize the demo was that limited... Four chords I could actually play on a real guitar.

This post was last modified: 05-07-2008 05:06 PM by [me].

I don't even have a PSP..poor poor misinformed drew.

Its true, Drew. Those DS game demo's are pretty mediocre. Although when it comes down under in a few weeks I'll probably try that Jam Sessions one... then forget this channel exists.

Ninja Gaiden is pretty good. I'll bet the channel will get more use out of it once they get around to getting some good games up there. It just came out today...can't you give it time to grow?