Somehow, in the middle of the night, with almost nobody noticing, Nintendo today launched The Nintendo Channel.

It's a new addition to the Wii that lets users preview upcoming titles, receive news, and download playable demos for the DS.

Also, there is an option available to Wii owners to allow announcements and commercials for future Nintendo products be sent to them via the new channel. Otherwise, users can simply choose to opt out.

Users can also choose to receive game reviews from other players, and after an hour of game play, they will be able to give reviews of their own.

It's kind of a neat service, and I think it's a more than welcome addition to the Wii dashboard.

If you have a Wii, go get it! It only costs free!

Tags : free : Nintendo : Nintendo Channel : nintendo ds : Reviews : virtual console : Wii : Wii Channel

Comments

By: Dragonfly On: 02:44 May 7th, 2008 Offline	One has to wonder why this idea wasn't conceived sooner. I'm definately glad to see this happening, although the channel isn't available in Europe yet, which is a little disappointing. Still, I really hope they take advantage of the DS demo download feature. That has a lot of potential for promoting new games, and developers will hopefully take advantage of it.

By: Samuel On: 02:53 May 7th, 2008 Offline	Why they didn't start out with this, I'll never know. I suppose they just wanted to settle the console first. Nintendo do tend to have a wait-and-see approach.

By: ManicGamer On: 03:07 May 7th, 2008 Offline	I like the game reviewing feature.. It would be cool to see something like that for the 360 or the PS3. This would give people who own the console a chance to see someone elses opinion before purchasing (I know, the internet already provides this) and it would give some direct feedback to the game makers once the reviews were submitted.

By: Dragonsoul On: 09:10 May 7th, 2008 Offline	I like it all, especially the demo option, I really like to preview games before buying them, and the local video store is a real pain in the ass for renting...plus, as mentioned, it's free so that's always a good thing. :P Good on Nintendo for doing this. Smart move, IMO.

By: Magus On: 01:32 May 8th, 2008 Offline	My first thoughts on this: neat! Demos and stuff from Nintendo. My second thought on this: Dang, not out in Europe yet.