Finally, Wii Ware made it’s debut yesterday. What is Wii Ware? Wii Ware is a service that allows you to purchase and download games and applications immediately in the comfort of your own home. Many Wii owners probably aren’t aware that their new white box can even venture into the online world. The games available right now are:

LostWinds $10
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My life as a King $15
Pop $7
Defend Your Castle $5
TV Show King $10
V.I.P. Casino Blackjack $7

From what I’ve seen so far, these games are far superior than anything on the Wii’s current Virtual Console store. Which really isn’t surprising since Virtual Console games are older generation games.

Originally to be released the same time Wii Ware came to the US, the Nintendo Channel arrived earlier. From this channel you’ll be able to watch game videos, view newly and upcoming released games, and best of all Nintendo DS Demo Downloads. So far you can download demos wirelessly to your DS for Brain Age 2, Flash Focus, Crosswords DS, Jam Sessions, Disney Friends, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Cooking Mama 2 and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword.

Another nice feature is a game recommendation system. You’ll be able to rate games and it applies your answers to the demographics you provide in a short survey. This data is used to provide recommendations made by people that play the games. The system only uses data that shows that you have played the game for at least an hour. Finally, game ranking scores made my millions of gamers (not just one single person such as, me deciding that GTA IV should be a 9, oops I mean 10, *snickers). Nintendo put together a very nice video about the channel here.

Nintendo announced the first Mario Kart Wii Online Tournament. Every few weeks, a new tournament will appear on the Mario Kart Channel. Different tournaments will have different rules. The official press release mentions some might ask players to race a certain course as fast as they can with specific characters, or to collect a number of coins on a course using the Wii Wheel or another certain control setup. You can attempt the test as many times as you like however, you will only be able to participate in this tournament till May 9th.

Sounds pretty interesting. Seems like they are handling this similar to the way they handle the Mii Channel, where Mii contests are posted occasionally.

Mario Kart Wii is a nice collaboration of many of the great ideas we’ve seen in many the previous versions. The slide boosting, drift boosting, battle mode, and all the classic arsenal like bananas and turtle shells. One of the best upgrades added to the Wii version is 12 player online racing. The game also allows a second player to play split-screen on the same console during these online matches. Unlike the Mario Kart DS, there are online battle modes and now with up to 8 players! (more…)