Got a linky to the 'pitch'?

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/27/nintendo-takes-wraps-off-of-wiiware/
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/06/26/level-up-exclusive-on-nintendo-wiiware.aspx

Enjoy!
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There are some things popping up about this... 40MB limit, non traditional publishing model, the smaller you make the game the more money Nintendo will give you, only one game from one publisher per month.

sounds kinda awesome, sounds kinda like xbox live arcade, there was some rumory rumors about an FZero and a Yoshi WiiWare game, which would be sexilicious. A simple FZero game, with Wii'esque controls.... man, funkzilla.

Think I am seriously going to have to get me one of those Japanese Wii.

It is becoming deeply unfair:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/features/wiiware.html

The americans always appear to be alot more coy about what is going on. Where's the Everyone's Nintendo channel... where's all that propaganda!

Bomberman Wii page:

http://bomberman.jp/wii/bomberman/

check the favicon out!

Might be an inhouse bomberman, unlike the very good XBLA version.

Another reason to get a JPN Wii!!!

The WiiWare stuff looks great - proper can't wait for Star Soldier!

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I think I have been indoctrinated, but the WiiWare stuff seems alot more vibrant and interesting than the other online programmes.

Seems less barriers to entry for the devs... who knows I think I am a seed these days for this stuff.

So what are the barriers to entry for the devs? My mate assumed it would cost next to nothing and wondered if I was going to attempt to make a game for it, whereas I always thought it was similar to XBLA/PSN (i.e. over £10,000 in devkits, testing etc if Nintendo approve your game), but neither of us can find any concrete info.

As far as I know, you need to have:

A business address (you can't work from home)
Previous experience of game development (even if it's just homebrew)
A fully-formed proposal for a game

You probably also need to invest in Wii Reader too. I don't imagine Nintendo are giving them away.

If you're serious, I guess the best thing to do is just phone Nintendo UK and ask to speak to the right person. There's an official application process, though I don't think you can do it online for obvious reasons.

Looking forward to SS R. Hope there's leaderboards!

Star Commander Classic

any JPN WiiWare folk, WiiWare'ing yet?

There's stuff on there (and a shop update you have to install) - but randomly Egg cancelled my credit card, never missed a payment and keep it well under control.....(which is probably why actually).

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Man, Everybody's Nintendo Channel at the same time as WiiWare!

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/nintendo-channe.html

And you can review WiiWare games in the channel

Hope they have the bandwidth!

My mind has done a u-turn on WiiWare and decided that it's doomed. The reason - I just checked my Wii's memory to find that I only have 21 blocks left. Barely enough for a NES game.

So it doesn't look like I'll be buying a single WiiWare title. And if enough gamers are in the same situation then Nintendo (and its partners) could be heading for trouble.

Yeah but you can just whack an SD card in and copy the VC stuff to that. I don't know whether you can run the VC games from the SD card or not. Not tried that yet...

You can't.

Yeah, I think Nintendo are going to have to educate people through some method that you can delete games and just download them again for free on that same console if you want.

The Mario Kart Wii Channel is meant ot take a good 82 blocks... so there's another thing, and Wii Fit... until they get stuff running from SD card, then its going to be a file management tedium.

Its wierd, I bought the Xbox 360 Elite so I didn't have to bother with file mgmt now I get freaking file management issues on a Wii. The GameCube and N64 save management was also a bit cumbersome.

I could count on one finger the number of times I've played some of the VC games I've bought. But having them immediately there is half the allure.

It's like the Nintendo of 1999 has been put in charge of storage space while all the talented 2008 staff are left to make games.

I've had a play with some of the jpn WiiWare games now.

Dr. Mario (1000 pts) - its a very good version of Dr. Mario, not much else to say. Online works very well, but you will get your arse kicked immediately by Japanese folk who have been playing the game for 20 years. The pill-dragging remote version is very odd and doesn't feel right compared to d-pad play.

Family Ping Pong (500 pts) - this is pretty bad, just extremely basic with not much feeling of control. Wii Tennis is a heck of a lot better, and even Wii Play ping-pong is the better game.

Puzzloop/Magnetica (1000 pts) - very good, if only for the remote twisting controls (assuming you have already played the DS version). Shame there is no online mode.

Tenshi no Solitaire (500 pts) - a completely competent Solitaire game.

Star Soldier R (800 pts) - absolutely fine, feels very similar to the Cube version, although only has 2 and 5 minute modes with 2 levels. It does have a Hudson rapid-fire speed tool, to suit 16shot presumably.

Overall it is pretty mixed. It all feels about 25% overpriced too, even though prices are comparable to XBLA. Unlike XBLA there are no real must haves here so far, although Dr. Mario and Puzzloop are definitely worth a go.

I am interested in Animal Panic and Pokemon Ranch, might give those a bash next.

No real problems with storage so far, all the jpn Channels are installed, but no VC games, and the five games above leaves about 750 free blocks. Having to back-up to SD is ok I guess, but a bit of a pain. Its not a show stopper though.

Is there a definitive US release list yet? From what I can tell:

Defend Your Castle
Dr Mario
FF Crystal Chronicles
Helix
Lost Winds
Pop
TV Show King
TV Casino Blackjack

Not amazing looking, is it.

What I would really like is 20-odd Bit Generations games at $5 a pop.

Got me Lost Winds today (eventually) and its a very absorbing game. The wind mechanic thing is quite enough interesting, and its got this whole Metroid style level design going for it, so the whole game is one level that you can't really access until you g3ts the sk!llZ.

Not what I would call frantic, but very well designed and excellent sound and music design.

Even the layering of the new techniques hasn't put me off, normally about 3 layers of stuff and my brain turns off, but this seems to be holding me just right.

Its even got the, "wandering around I think the game is broken" level design vibe about it, until you skip into something interesting and give it a go.

100% worth a fiver, must've played it for an hour at least maybe two so far.

So actually I checked, my first session was actually 4 hours, and I had another 1 ish last night, onto the final thing to find assuming thats the final thing to do bit.

I can't recommend the game enough, it really does have this spot on Wind Waker'ish vibe going on... the dialogue is a tiny bit colloquial English, and bizarrely a small font...

All the little nuances are really engaging, just fiddling with the environment, the interactions with the people with the wind... the art design, the detail in the backgrounds... the level design is pretty good, some of the puzzles are very well delivered... its such an organic design that you kinda wander into a puzzle instead of DUN DUN DAAAH ITS PUZZLE TIME... so before you know it you are half way through a monster multifacited ultra puzzle without even realising.

Played some more WiiWare games today in Germany.

Toki Tori is a great puzzle/platformer - the graphics and gameplay ethic really remind me of the Amiga days... in a good way.

Star Soldier R is very addictive but too short to bother with unless you're locking high-score horns with someone else.

TV Show King was a nice surprise - an even challenge with some interesting gameplay mechanics that should be ace in full 4-player mode.

Oh and I brought up the issue of storage space but was met with the usual spiel.

WiiWare Aero Guitar:

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1215624_1124.html

looks a bit fluffy.

WiiWare Gradius!!!

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20080717/gra.htm

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There's a Space Invaders spin-off on the way;

http://www.taito.co.jp/csm/title/2008/si_geteven/

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Bought Actionloop something tonight on a whim....

It actually sells itself as a DS game port in the shop.

And its alright... but man, the presentation, i.e. the menus are freaking PS2 JRPG item screen levels of terrible.

In fact I almost didn't buy the game at all because the Wii Menu screen / Title screen is terrible.

16-Shot promoting the new WiiWare version of Alien Crush.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=TsnhWBH9hq0

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Never heard of 16-Shot...

I do have a weak spot for pinball games, the mad ones I played on the Saturn... wasn't there one where you were the actual pinball and it was played from that perspective... awesome.

Bought Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People this week. A lot of the humour's lost on me because I've never seen the show it's based on but the game offers good solid adventuring nonetheless.

There's a good mini-game, in the form of a custom hand-made comic, narrated by Strong Bad himself, in which you have to kill off four valley girls in by manufacturing dangerous situations around them. It's a bit hard to explain but is really good fun in practice. It could even make a good game in its own right with enough thought.

I bought Strong Bad... as an variable afficianados of sbemail.exe its quite quaint... but, it only enforces my natural dislike of this genre of game... I'll try and beat it, but it either my mental ineptitude or my distrust of trial and error solutions.

It's a very easy game, you shouldn't have a problem. And all the solutions are perfectly logical - as is Telltale's wont.

Picked up (is that the right word for downloads?) Wild West Guns once I finished Strong Bad. It's quite good, in a Link's Crossbow Training sort of way. Not sure I like the idea of locking out each level until you've met a high score requirement on the last though.

Gradius Rebirth is out today on the Japanese shop I think - can't wait to check that out! ^^

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PALland have what they call the "Hanabi Festival" this week, so we get a slew of games they should've release 20 years ago... quite nice really.

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/2008/wii_shop_channel_releases_29_august_9447.html

First prize for those who know what Hanabi means.

"花火" = Fireworks -

What do I win!?!??!?! XD

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Try Gradius Rebirth? Better than I was expecting, and harder. It plays like a strange remix of the Gradius and Salamander games, and looks for all the world like a SNES game, it even has slow down.

320x240 ftw!

I didn't get a chance to T_T

It's been non-stop Jojo scanlation, and will be for the next few months too I reckon. I'll get hold of it over the weekend - I want to play Disgaea 3 and Infinite Undiscovery aswell but I know it'll most likely not happen

I've been trying to play a bit of Border Down whenever I get the chance too, that game is so amazing - it's because of Psyvariar 2 that I missed it.

- and Jibber, i can has blue or white DS Lite as prize pls?

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I just went back in time and invented Viewtiful Joe for you... had you not answered that question we'd have a paradox on our hands.

That'll do then, I wouldn't want to destroy reality for the sake of a DS.

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That Gradius Rebirth is just a little bit fucking brilliant isn't it?

I had a few goes last night and got to the level with the dinosaur skeletons, the ones you're NOT supposed to shoot! So I went in guns blazing and died in a hail of bone fragments!

This is a top-notch little shooter, loads of clever little touches you'd expect from the series all heaped with a massive dose of nostalgia - loving the music and voice too. They've given you a Replay Mode and Stage Select from the off too

Noticed that whatever filter the Wii applies to the image is switched off when this game boots, for the first time ever it's all pin sharp on my screen!

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Oh yeah! I hadn't really thought about the 320x240 pin sharpness, but you are right

It is very good. I liked the power up dropping blobs on the second stage, where you get them homing in on you to stick to the wall, then go back and hoover them up.

It is such a strange combination. It looks and sounds just like a Super Famicom game, but there are definitely ideas in there that are brand new.

THIS.

This is what I'm really feeling aswell, it's almost as if all these guys are being held back by modern conventions and really enjoy throwing out all the bullshit and concentrating on fun things again. I REALLY can't wait for Rockman now!

There are lots of really nice little bits of gameplay genius in there which feel completely brand new, like the blob section you mention and the exploding skeletons which wiped me out.

The absolute mastery of 2D graphics is apparent in so many sections aswell, like when the first boss appears...and when the Moai boss appears too; it's LOVELY!

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Sorry to get all serious and piss on the evident WIN! of this game (need to dl this tonight )

There's an odd sort of trend developing here isn't there. I mean Pac Man, Bionic Commando, Gradius and Rockman. I know there have been retro releases before, but nothing like these lovingly created fresh new games with a retro twist.

You see the thing that's nagging me is do I really need a 200 quid multicore HD monster to play these games? Are we reaching some sort of tipping point, just as the netbook or sub notebook computer market has recently, where the arse falls out of the bottom end and hardware to do the limited stuff that I'm interested in becomes cheap as chips?

I'd say we already have reached that point - those netbooks, the DS, and the Wii.

True dat.

I honestly believe the iPhone/iPod Touch is going to become a Mecca for addictive, arcade style games too.

I'm not very popular with a lot of my peers for thinking that, of course...

Well after about an hour of hackery I managed to get Gradius Rebirth dl to my US Wii.

Certainly it was worth the pain.

Whaaaaaat?!

How the hell do you do that?

Thank's to a tip from Paper really.

Use the twighlight hack to install the homebrew channel. This is well documented (I formatted SD card to FAT16)

Then you need a little app called AnyRegion_Changer, unzip that to a new folder (e.g. Anyregion_Changer) under the apps folder that you will have on your SD card as part of the Homebrew channel. Change the name of the anyregion_changer.dol file to boot.dol This allows the homebrew channel to add it to the list of available homebrew.

Then it's a simple case of running it from the homebrew channel and selecting region and language as Japanese, rebooting the Wii menu and purchasing through the shopping channel (in Japanese) as normal.

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/AnyRegion_Changer