Do you notice something missing from the Japanese boxart of We Love Golf? Perhaps, say, a little blue circle indicating online play?
Yes, it's true, the Japanese version of We Love Golf doesn't support Wi-Fi. But, fortunately for us, Camelot made some changes to the game.
Nintendo Power recently confirmed with the developer that online play was added to the American and European versions, making us even more excited for this title. If anything could top playing Wiimote golf as one of our favorite Capcom attorneys, it'd be adding an online experience on top of that.
So your Wii has built in wi-fi to connect to the internet, but that doesn't mean everyone is down for that. Many of the fine folk cruising these tubes that make up the interweb still do so through trusty wires, perhaps too scared to enter the domain of wireless solutions available. Are you one of these individuals that had to snatch up a LAN adapter to get online or are you down with the wi-fi?
Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama recently announced that Wii games would soon feature downloadable content. If you're unfamiliar with this service (which is currently prevalent in the other current-gen systems, the PS3 and Xbox 360), this means that you'll be able to download additional content for your games via Wi-Fi.
There's no word on what games will offer DLC (though we can make guesses on a few that will and won't), nor have we heard about potential memory limitations with the inclusion of this service. Add-ons will be available for both Wii Ware titles and disc-based games, though.
As per usual, Wii owners will be able to purchase such content with Wii Points or a credit card.
There's a vicious rumor currently circulating on a number of message boards that the Australian version of Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is shipping without online functionality of any description. Forum users at various sites, including Aussie-Nintendo, PALGN, and NeoGAF, have all complained that the in-game menus completely lack an option to play online, while the game's box in Australia has neither the Nintendo Wi-Fi logo, or a mention of the title's much-vaunted 32-player online mode, which is available in other regions.
Just to further confuse matters, the game manual that shipped with the title in Australia reportedly does dedicate a whole page to the online mode. Frankly, we're confused, not to mention a little bit worried for our fellow Wii owners down under.
At the time of writing, EA has yet to respond to our request for clarification.
Of all the new features Brawl will bring to the Smash Bros. table, the ability to fight opponents online is arguably the most eagerly anticipated. Still, some might argue that Nintendo just ain't that great at this online malarkey, and that Brawl's Wi-Fi mode could be a big, fat fly in an otherwise quite lovely tub of ointment.
Director Masahiro Sakurai is clearly aware of these concerns, because today's dojo update features footage of an online scrap between Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto and the development team in Tokyo -- apparently, this is pretty close to the distance between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which Google Maps tells us is 435 kilometers, or 270 miles. The resulting four-man online brawl looks buttery-smooth and fills us with hope.
Even though the actual release date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl continues to slip, we know that it will get here soon. Until then, we're perfectly content to watch a video like this and practice our sighs. With five minutes of gameplay in this video, we're able to get a lot of practice-losing in.
We already know that we have no chance against the legions of Smash-obsessed teens who will be online day and night, so we're going to try to be the best at being totally dejected about our losses. We plan to mix it up with a little bit of upbeat winner-congratulating, and maybe some angry tantrums, but as far as strategy goes, our bread and butter will be the good old sigh of resignation.
Considering it's a Nintendo game, there's been astoundingly little fanfare for Wii Chess. The game's Wikipedia page is absolutely barren, while a release date has only just appeared (January 18th), and then only for Europe. Despite the lack of information, Nintendo obviously reckons this could have broad appeal, as it's slapped the "Touch! Generations" logo on the corner of the box, which roughly translates as: "Your Gran and her friends will like this."
Anyway, further details finally emerged on the title today, with CVG reporting that Wii Chess is to retail for a budget price of £20 / €30 (we'd presume the game's budget status will be preserved if and when it reaches other markets -- our educated guess would be $30 for the U.S.), and that it will support both local multiplayer and games played over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. We're also promised a number of graphical styles, which hopefully means Nintendo-themed boards and pieces, including Goomba pawns and knights that look like Yoshi.
And yes, that is the German boxart. We travelled the seven seas of the internet searching for an English version, but returned empty-handed. Still, at least you now know the German word for "chess." Never know when that might come in handy.
By now, we should have learned never to expect online multiplayer, or really, any online capabilities at all in Wii games, and yet still we hope. Is an online tennis-type sports game too much to ask for? Apparently, yes; Rockstar has confirmed that their Wii version of Table Tennis will not feature online multiplayer.
So what gives? Why is Rockstar's Table Tennis port lacking the online mode that graced Xbox Live? "All the focus is going into making it the most advanced control system on the Wii," said Rockstar reps, in what has to be the most disappointing explanation of the month. It's not like the two are mutually exclusive. The real question here is who's at fault -- Nintendo or Rockstar? -- but we may never know if it's the Wii's basic online infrastructure or lazy developers looking to put out ports as quickly as possible and using controls and "family-oriented" play as an excuse to avoid extra work.
The upcoming Top Spin Tennis doesn't look like it's set to feature online play, either; every time we see the game mentioned, the focus is on that "family-oriented" play, which, in our experiences, means forget connecting with anyone outside your home. We may be waiting a long time to take some sort of tennis or table tennis game online at this rate.
So far, the Wii's online mutliplayer has been a little sketchy. Pokémon Battle Revolution and Mario Strikers Charged have seemed okay, but Madden '08 has been having a few issues, and of course, the question of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and whether or not it will be online continues to give gamers cause to chew their nails with fear. There are numerous other titles that many think should have been online as well. Where do you think we'll stand with the online situation by this time next year? Do you think the kinks will be worked out?
Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.
Nintendo still hasn't confirmed any of the technical specs of the Wii hardware in detail, and we wouldn't recommend you hold your breath until they do. They don't want people making assumptions of what the system can or can't do based on arbitrary numbers and jargon. We do know that the Wii is much more than "two Gamecubes taped together." In addition to the revolutionary controllers, we get integrated Wi-Fi, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 48 MB more RAM, internal flash storage, an SD card slot, full-sized DVD disc capacity, and a new operating system and GUI that brings us software like Mii Channel, Photo Channel, Forecast Channel, and Internet Channel. Wii Shop and Virtual Console could not have been done on Gamecube, and with support for component output reintegrated, we can enjoy our old and new games in glorious 480p. That's a pretty long list of upgrades over the Gamecube, and it's in a smaller, more attractive package.
If you have a website, you may have wondered just what you might need to do to make it Wii-friendly. Luckily, there's a great guide on Opera for the Wii available at the Opera Development Community that goes into all the ins and outs of just what the Wii's browser can do, and plenty of tips to make browsing from the sofa a little easier. The in-depth guide even looks at the smallest of details, such as what is and isn't available in the onscreen keyboard, and what kind of addresses and forms are workable on the console. For anyone looking to make the web a little more Wii-friendly, this is the place to go.
Update: It looks like the Internet, including Joystiq and Wii Fanboy, got punk'd when an Excite Truck 2 press release was supposedly released by Nintendo of Canada. The release appeared on official press resources, such as Games Press, and is still available on GamesIndustry.biz. Thanks to an intrepid reader, there is confirmation that this is, indeed, a fake--quite possibly the most successful in recent memory. We apologize for this err in judgment, and hope that Nintendo will actually make an online-enabled Excite Truck in the future.
When the big man speaks, we listen. And yes, we're referring to the deity that is Reggie Fils-Aime, standing atop his mighty pedestal after supplanting Zeus for the title. He was recently on Spike TV's GameHead, speaking rather generically about the Wii. But, as you may have guessed, there was a diamond in the rough: the news that the first multiplayer online Wii games will be announced in Q1 2007 and start shipping in Q2. Finally!
We're a little disappointed that online didn't come right out of the box; God knows some games really could have benefitted: Madden 07, Call of Duty 3, and Red Steel certainly could have used the boost. Still, at least a smidgeon of online functionality is coming quite soon, with the ability to trade custom levels in Elebits via the magic of the internet intertron. That's its new name. Thus have we spoken, and thus it is so.
[We don't normally steal our sister site Joystiq's pictures, but this one was just too good.]
The Wii is gloriously Wi-Fi enabled right out of the box, a lovely addition to the console. But, alas, not all of us are high tech money-throwers with advanced router setups in our third floor libraries. Well, we are (though it's in the fourth floor media-viewing room), but for everyone else, Nintendo has announced an Ethernet kit that will (presumably) take a standard ethernet cord and run it through one of the two USB slots on the back of the console.
Another option is the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB dongle, an option made available for DS users without a router. However, the limited availability and relatively high price have been a bit of a barrier, so it's nice to see that Nintendo is offering a hardwired option. Plus, wired speeds and connection stability are still generally superior to any wireless network, so some of us you rich boys might want to pick one up regardless.
The DS has suffered much criticism for the antiquity of its "Friend Code" system, whereby players may only become online "friends" through the manual sharing and entering of a random, twelve-digit code. Even worse is the fact that each DS game and system combination generates a different friend code, so one needs to reshare and reenter a new code for every Wi-Fi enabled game. Archaic? Yes. Overly protective of small children? You betcha.
Well, word on the street (and an unconfirmed word!) is that Wii will also be utilizing a Friend Code system. While this is not surprising, it seems as though Nintendo took a bit of a hint and reduced the Friend Code to being system dependent only. It's unclear whether a different code might be generated for different user profiles on an individual Wii, but at least we can memorize the digits as we would a personal phone-number.
Do you notice something missing from the Japanese boxart of We Love Golf? Perhaps, say, a little blue circle indicating online play?
So far, the Wii's online mutliplayer has been a little sketchy. 
_thumbnail.jpg "Mega Man 9")
_thumbnail.jpg "Smash Bros. Brawl Snapshots")
