Sci-Fi columnist slams Wii channels

"A character-creation mode in Wii Sports would give you the same thing and not take up a "channel" on your startup screen."

Except for the fact that, with Mii, you can store your avatars in the memory within the Wiimote, and use them if you were to play Wii Sports (or Wario Ware) at a friend's house. Sounds more convenient than bringing a tiny memory stick with you, considering you'll need the second controller for multiplayer.

"It seems like Nintendo wanted a feature that was so cute it would draw in grandma and grandpa..."

Wasn't that the point? Almost every channel, Mii to some extent, was created to attract more than just gamers. Nintendo has even used the term "grandparents" when talking about people they want to reach out to.

"What else can you do through the channels menu? Well, you can browse photos on your TV, a feature that's now available on about ten million other products."

Exactly, it's standard in just about everything now. You could make the case that Nintendo would look behind-the-times if they didn't feature that.

"You can check the weather on your TV, something I believe has been available for a long time through a little thing called the Weather Channel."

I too agree that this is just about useless. Then again, the Weather Channel is useless to. It takes forever to get the local forcast. A better example would've been looking online. Wii's weather channel is easily better than THE Weather Channel.

"Will people really go through their Wii to check the weather?"

I usually won't. However, if I'm playing a Wii title before I leave to go somewhere (say...a long drive to a family members house), I'd rather just press the home button and go check the weather. It's quick and easy in those situations.

"And the number one thing you would obviously want to do — play games against people online — isn't an option at all, at least at the moment."

I missed the part where online play @ launch is the norm. ONE console currently boasts online play at launch (360).

"It's a tease, being online on your console and not being able to play games using it. Isn't that the whole point of having a connected console?"

PSP had online titles before DS did. Did that make the online feature for PSP better? Did it benefit the PSP? No.

"However, imagine being able to play Mario Kart against your friend in another state. Again, not having online gameplay as an option seems like a missed opportunity."

It's like he didn't have enough negatives, so he made one up. People don't play retro games with online play in mind. Besides, you won't have a true retro multiplayer feel unless your opponent is sitting in the same room as you.

"Let's just hope they don't screw up what could be another selling point by aiming just at non-gamers."

So because of the not-so-important Wii channels, Nintendo may be aiming just at non-gamers? What a load. Again, it's like he didn't have enough negatives, so he made one up.

Sounds like someone is intimidated by lil' ol' Wii...

Sounds like a complete moron to me. Figured that he could get a lot of publicity by using an unpopular standpoint. He couldn't think of something clever so he said something stupid and controversial.

I won't be reading that guys blog in the future. It's like he just looked at the back of the box and made stuff up from there.

The Mii will be used in more then just games...

Example.

WiiConnect24's Messaging Feature.
http://ms.nintendo-europe.com/wii/?site=w_connect24.html&l=enGB
The image at the bottom of the page, does anyone else see the face shot of the Mii?

"Will people really go through their Wii to check the weather?"

I will, and with the news channel too, i'm a student and my college is 9 miles from where i live, i have to get up stupidly early to commute there and i get home late, i don't see the news or weather on tv and i have the standard 5 uk channels, when it comes on the night time news i'm busy playing games. So in the evening i check www.metoffice.com to get my weather for the next day as i'm out of the house all day, i used to play with the idea of a digital picture frame that would tell me the weather but always put it off, now i don't need one, the Wii will do it all!

So go back to your basement and star trek re-runs Adam and leave the popularity to the elitest Wii crowd.;)

Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but...

Why are caring what a science fiction columnist cares about a video game system? What next, he's going to analyze the new runway fashions?

Seems like a chance to get worked up over nothing.

@#1 - I agree with most of your points, however I think online play in retro games would be a very good feature. It might not be as good as sitting next to your friends, but If your friends live across the country, it would be better than nothing. Many emulators already offer this feature, so I dont think it would be that hard for nintendo to implement.

tard.

he's just pissed there's no star trek channel!

seriously though, this is a case of a journalist attempting to write about something he knows nothing about. there's nothing wrong with that at all, however it does show how good a journalist really is.

LOL that guy really doesn't have a clue, Gotta love the internet, when any joe-blow can have a "News" blog!

Stupid, stupid man. Sigh...

I'm sure there is more to the Wii Weather than meets the eye. Perhaps they included this so the weather in-game will reflect whats going on outside your home. That would be neat, and I'm sure the Animal Crossing nerds would love it.

Sounds like adam's review was half-baked.. he should study what he wants to review more..

I'm not going to bother to read this guy's misinformed ideas of Wii Channels, but I can't think of a single reason why anybody would want to dis them.

one more reason to hate sci-fi - its professianals really irritate me :( what is the sense of the act? the reason, the purpose? IMHO, "To get money", "having less money than usual", "to make the editor to give the additional money", respectively. So no use to read it at all.

nothing like the smell of half baked popularity stunt.

not only is he wrong in most aspects of his biased statement, he is completely misinformed.

I love the Mii's. I want to see Mii RPG's (and maybe MMORPGs) and Mii FPS's. Graphics be damned, I want all my friend's Mii's in my RPG party and I want to see the face of my friends when I scream "BOOM HEADSHOT!!!!". Mii's are just cool.

Why would someone review it? It doesn't exist on the market yet...lol, was he at the Nintendo wii convention in new york?

I find the whole, and I paraphrase, "They could have just put Mii in Wii Sports so valuable start menu space wouldn't be wasted..." laughable.

From what I've seen, navigating the channels looks pretty simple, even if you had a screenfull of them.

So instead of making the Mii's useable in Wii Sports only, they've plonked it into the system core as an essential feature with which other games can incorporate.

It'd be sick if Animal Crossing had both weather channel integration and Mii integration, so rather than getting some random person in a random weathered Animal Crossing, you get yourself living in a virtual town with actual weather.

A bit off topic, but I hope there's a southern hemisphere option in the next AC, being in Australia, it's certainly a tease when it's almost 40°C outside and you're running around in a winder wonderland.

Makes me smile because this type of person is exactly who we don't want buying the Wii. No vision, no fun, no Wii.

#1 writes:
[[[
"What else can you do through the channels menu? Well, you can browse photos on your TV, a feature that's now available on about ten million other products."

Exactly, it's standard in just about everything now. You could make the case that Nintendo would look behind-the-times if they didn't feature that.
]]]

I'm sure that was N's logic when they took out the DVD movie watching.

The same guy gave a very negative review of the Universe, too. It seems despite having lived there his entire life, he had never been bothered to really learn much about it, nor did he take the time for some rudimentary research when he set out to write about it.

@ fraxyl

If its so troublesome, why not just set your Calander 6 months off in either direction, effectively negating the Hemisphere problem

But yes, it would be awesome to integrate those features to create virtual worlds....

The guy seems to have a negative view on most things :(

This guy must have read the first prototype feature list...

Oh oh! And The Weather Channel doens't exist in other countries than the U.S! maybe Canada too, I don't know, but we don't have one in Scandinavia!

"but we don't have one in Scandinavia"...are you sure!

"It'd be sick if Animal Crossing had both weather channel integration and Mii integration, so rather than getting some random person in a random weathered Animal Crossing, you get yourself living in a virtual town with actual weather."

See, but if you lived in Seattle, you'd get pretty sick and tired of the constant raining after a while, wouldn't you think? :)

"PSP had online titles before DS did. Did that make the online feature for PSP better? Did it benefit the PSP?"

Yes