WiiWare Japanese launch info round-up

by Kyle Orland { Mar 25th 2008 at 10:56AM }

The day you've been waiting for is here -- if you're a Japanese Wii owner with a hankering for downloadable games, that is. Yes, Nintendo's game download service WiiWare has finally launched in Japan and, with the help of our friends over at Wii Fanboy, we've rounded up a bunch of information on the roll out from around the web, including:

Video of the download process (which is rather slow on Nintendo's currently overwhelmed servers).
A description of the shopping process from SiliconEra.
Impressions of a few launch games (including one that actually sounds fun) over at Wired's Game|Life.
Screenshots galore from Famitsu.
Videos galore, gathered by Wii Fanboy from NintendoWorldReport.

We're also following news about the service's implementation of downloadable content, which has shown up in three games so far. Look for more on that in a bit.

Tags: DLC, download, downloadable, WiiWare

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Erwos @ Mar 25th 2008 11:05AM

Judging from the early line-up here, it looks like the N+ developers might have some more whining to do.

Marry me Mario PSN: Killjebus @ Mar 25th 2008 11:12AM

Out of curiosity, on average...how many DL games can u fit on the Wii? What do you do if you run out of space? Can you re-download previously purchased games? And can you save them to memory cards? And lastly...do you find that it is a pain in the ass to re-download the same games over and over.

Worst Review Ever @ Mar 25th 2008 11:17AM

Here are answers to your questions in the order that they were asked and according to my knowledge.

Depends on how much space you have.

I don't know.

Yes?

Yes?

Yes.

Hope that was helpful.

loof @ Mar 25th 2008 11:43AM

I've got 4 n64 games and 3 nintendo games right now and I'm only using about half my space.

Yes.

Yes.

Nope, haven't had to do it.

makishima @ Mar 25th 2008 11:45AM

To ACTUALLY answer your questions (sorry Worst review, but why bother posting that if you couldn't answer most of the questions?)
1)Yes it depends on the size of the games themselves but the Wii has 512 megs of internal memory.
2)Delete stuff or move it to a memory card.
3)Yes.
4)Yes but in order to play them, they must be transfered over to the actual system memory to be used, just like save game files (Anyone else find that really annoying?)
5) Nope but thats cause I don't. I haven't found enough in the VC that I have even filled the internal memory yet. And if I did, see #4. Just move it to an SD card till you want to play it again.

playwhutyalike (finally bought Halo 3) @ Mar 25th 2008 9:38PM

Geez, you are such a f@ggot.

Beddoes @ Mar 25th 2008 11:14AM

Gah! Please sort out the Frontlines Fuel of War advert! The thing keeps going off at random even when im nowhere near it!

Haon @ Mar 25th 2008 12:20PM

It goes off blaring in the background whenever I use spaces (Mac, firefox). So annoying.

samfish (Brawl: 2793 0291 2277) @ Mar 25th 2008 1:05PM

It goes off for me whenever I open open my bookmarks menu.

Although I haven't seen it since yesterday.

samfish (Brawl: 2793 0291 2277) @ Mar 25th 2008 11:33AM

All I really want from Wii Ware is new 2D updates to some classic games like Mario, Sonic, Zelda, DKC, Mega Man 9, and, if we're really good boys and girls, Viewtiful Joe 3.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 25th 2008 1:29PM

Thats actually the opposite of what I want to see on wii ware. Doing that would make it indistinguishable from the bad parts of XBLA.

thispaceforsale @ Mar 25th 2008 11:40AM

wiiware could be awesome, these games don't look awesome- and may never hit other regions anyway
peggle or bookworm adventures would do great on wiiware, as woud an oregon trail- if the system is going to be bloated, then it will need a realy streamlined and intuitive navigation system so people can easily search by category, popularity, price, etc.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 25th 2008 11:43AM

I'm sorry, but Crystal Chronicles and Dr. Mario alone make WiiWare awesome.

CJC @ Mar 25th 2008 11:59AM

That Pokemon game looks really weird and sort of boring...

...and I STILL want to play it. Why must it be so damn cute?

Phil @ Mar 25th 2008 12:23PM

Honestly, I just wanna know how My Life As a King is playing out.

Fernando Rocker @ Mar 25th 2008 1:06PM

I want to play My Life as a King, Eternity's Child, World of Goo, Star Soldier R, and Dr. Mario.

=p

Fernando Rocker @ Mar 25th 2008 1:06PM

Ah, and Lost Wind.

mr mobius @ Mar 25th 2008 2:40PM

World of Goo is a must for me, regardless if it'll be 1500 points or not, though 1500 points is ridiculous for a game on WiiWare in my opinion when I can get a full N64 game for 1000 points - that means Super Mario 64 and LoZ:OoT.

Gurei @ Mar 25th 2008 2:35PM

lawl SD cards feel small now dont thei?

Chase @ Mar 25th 2008 3:05PM

I am a Wii60 person (I think that's the Internet slang for someone who owns a Wii and 360), and am torn, 'cause these games look terrible, but, I think it's safe to say, they'll play well (Dr. Mario & Bacteria Extermination, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King). How will multiplayer work? Considering Nintendo's ridiculous friend codes system (one of the worst modern gaming decisions for a key part of modern console gaming), will match-ups be random, or will you be required to input a friend code per WiiWare title?