The Nintendo Channel: A Guided Tour

After the Wii puts the content in its brain, it'll start shooting it into the air for your DS to collect. As soon as it's done downloading, you can play. Just be aware that the whole thing disappears once the system is shut off. Now, if you'll excuse us, our brain age is in the 50s and we're embarrassingly behind on its training.

And then the Wii will cue up your content and instruct you to turn on your DS.

Our favorite feature from the "Find Titles For You" menu is the DS Download Service. Right now, there's a list of eight games: demos for Brain Age 2, Flash Focus, Crosswords DS, Jam Sessions, Disney Friends, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Cooking Mama 2 and Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. You simply choose a game ...

Then you'll slide a scale to show how much you're recommending the game, from "Not Very Highly" to "Highly." And yes, there are fun sound effects to accompany the process. You'll then get a series of questions about who the game appeals to ("Anyone" or "Gamers," "Casual" or "Hardcore," etc.) and whether it's best alone or with friends. Then, you'll cast your vote. Marketing research has never been so fun! Let's check out the DS download stuff.

Then enter an age.

Then, let them know if a boy or girl is recommending it.

Bad news for fans of the "Everybody Votes!" channel: Recommending games is kind of fun. First, you pick a game from the list, which is populated solely by games you've played for at least an hour.

So, the list isn't too forward-looking at the moment (the last date is May 20 for Summon Night: Twin Age) but it's well laid out and easy to read. OK, on to recommendations.

From this menu you can find games, recommend games or download games for the DS. Let's view some new titles first.

You'll find yourself at a massive list of around 40 videos for you to consume. If you, like us, have seen most of this stuff, bounce to that blue button at the top of the screen and click "Find Titles For You."

You'll then get to see your first video. If you're anxious to get to the other stuff, just click that button at the bottom of the screen that says "To The Video List."

Next, you'll find out that Nintendo wants to make some recommendations to you based on the games you play, if only you'll let them monitor that. With most companies, we'd be nervous, but we're sure Nintendo's just going to mix our personal data with the laughter of children and make castle-shaped dream clouds.

So, when you first load up the Nintendo Channel you'll be asked if you want to receive commercial messages on the Wii Message Board. We trust that you know the right answer to this question.

Many of you have probably already dug right into Nintendo's new Wii offering, the appropriately titled Nintendo Channel. For those of you who haven't grabbed it from the Wii Shop Channel though, we'd like to humbly present our guided photo tour of the service.