WiiNintendo

Excerpt from a great guide to WiiWare from Kombo

Details about the service
WiiWare officially launched March 25th in Japan and will launch May 12th in the United States. Since the 12th is a Monday, we could speculate that WiiWare games will be released on Mondays on a weekly basis, similar to the Virtual Console. Games will be made available through Nintendo’s Wii Shop Channel, in a section separate from Virtual Console games. In dealing with developer’s use of the service, Nintendo has stressed that nearly all decision-making will be done on the developer-side, with little interference from Nintendo.

Gamers will use Wii Points to purchase WiiWare titles, and pricing has been rumored to be in the range of 300-1500 points ($3-$15) per game, though Nintendo emphasizes that they’d like developers to set their own pricing as they see fit. A 40 megabyte cap on games was rumored, but again, Nintendo chimed in, saying that it was merely a guideline that developers are free to exceed if they like. At GDC ‘08, Nintendo revealed some ways that they intend to keep file size down for games, such as keeping instruction manuals for games online, and compressing the game when not being played. They also mentioned that demos for titles can be made available, but aren’t required. Finally, any control scheme available for a boxed-retail game can be made available and used in a WiiWare game, including supporting the GameCube controller.

What does WiiWare mean for gamers?
WiiWare is a strong opportunity for fans of Nintendo’s little console-that-could to see some of the best innovation and usage of Wii’s unique capabilities yet. Without the pressure of making sure a game is a financial hit, smaller developers will be free to experiment with completely new game designs that, if they unfortunately fail, the impact won’t make or break them. Shying away from shoehorning motion controls into traditional gameplay situations and creating new experiences based around the Wii’s strengths could give Nintendo fans some much-needed respite from the oft chanted “waggle” mantra. The implications behind the fact that there are probably a dozen sites out there that are collections of browser-based, bite-size games touted as designed with the Wii and its internet channel in mind are strong for the potential runaway success of Nintendo’s downloadable game service.

But what about the games?
The potential is obviously there for WiiWare to thrive, but the ideas and possibilities are worthless if the games don’t deliver. Nintendo announced that there are over 100 games currently in development for their WiiWare service. In comparison, less than 50 games have been released on the PlayStation Store with nearly a year head start. From remakes of popular legacy franchises, to completely new IPs built specifically for the downloadable service, the entire gaming gambit is being run by Nintendo’s WiiWare on the heels of one of the most successful hardware launches ever. The rest of our feature this week is going to focus on every known game announced for WiiWare up to this point. What’s confirmed? What isn’t? Join us this week as Kombo pieces together the WiiWare puzzle.

Need a crash course on WiiWare? Keep reading.