It's about time. Less that five days after Nintendo released the Twilight Hack killer known as Wii menu update 3.3, the folks at HackMii have released their previously tested workaround, giving new life to the homebrew community. We can only assume the next menu update that tries to thwart the hack will be itself thwarted in record time.

[Via Engadget; thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

We've got some good news and some bad news. Let's start with the bad news: Nintendo's latest Wii menu update (3.3) effectively plugs up the Twilight Princess hole that served to foster a homebrew community – or, perhaps more accurately, it casts the homebrew community into a realm of darkness. According to the update, "Beacuse unauthorized modifications to save files may impair game play or the Wii Console, updating to Wii Menu version 3.3 will also check for and automatically remove such save files."

As for the good news, the Wii menu update also lets you move a Mii from from the Mii Plaza to the Mii Parade, and really, isn't that awesome enough to make up for killing homebrew? The countdown has begun for someone to produce a Wii downgrader.

Update: According to various sources, the Homebrew Channel still work if it was installed before the menu update.

We know that most of you are probably too busy to bother with a Wii Menu update that you suspect adds very little in the way of functionality. We just wanted to take a moment to tell you that your suspicions are entirely correct: That little blue glow promises only version 3.2, a Disc Channel change that lets you know when an inserted disk has an update on it. You may now return to ignoring it.

To Zero Cool and the rest of you l33t hax0rs, worry not: The update apparently does nothing to impede the Twilight Princess hacks we're sure you've all grown so fond of.

Nintendo's Takashi Aoyama took the stage this morning in front of an enormous crowd to talk about the development of the Wii Menu interface, and the concurrent development of the system's features. The major news at this presentation is branding and confirmation of some pay content online (including, possibly, fee-based online play), video of a WiiWare game, and confirmation that the Everybody's Nintendo Channel (which offers videos, screenshots, and also DS demo downloads) is still planned for release in the U.S. and Europe for an unspecified time. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed, so here's a screen of the highlighted WiiWare game from developer Frontier's homepage.

The WiiWare game is called LostWinds and is a side-scroller controlled by the Nunchuk. The Wiimote pointer controls gusts of wind that can affect the character, enemies, and onscreen items. The visual style is very green and sort of Crystal-Chronicles-like. No information about release date or cost was given, but a video was shown.

The Everybody's Nintendo Channel "assists in finding software suited to the user's unique taste and/or play style" by allowing people who have played games for at least an hour to vote, and also providing information, screens, and videos about new games. This information will also be available with WiiWare. Aoyama said that the service is indeed planned for the U.S. and Europe, but didn't say when. He demonstrated the channel with a video showing a Wii Fit trailer.

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection "Pay&Play" content will include games that are not free to play online. The icon is the same, but orange and surrounded with a rectangle with a "Pay&Play" label. This content would use Wii Points and would include both WiiWare and disc games. No specifics (of course!) but Guitar Hero III DLC seems like a possibility.