Wii Channels Explained
The most intriguing new feature revealed at the Nintendo Wii Conferences was that of the “Wii Channel” system. Wii Channels are useful little things that were designed to make everyone in the household want to use the Wii. It’s appealing to the non-gamers of the world to try out the Wii and get used to the controller. The progression from that is using it for games. So what kind of channels will be used to get even the most stubborn parents and spouses to play? Well, let’s take a look:
Disc Channel: This is what you click to access your GCN and Wii games.
Mii Channel: This lets you create your own avatar for use in games like Wii Sports. You can transfer the avatar into your WiiMote then use it when you play it at a friend’s house! There are tons of options to make your avatar look like anybody you want.
Photo Channel: This allows you to display your pictures from any SD Memory card onto the TV. Not only that, you can also zoom in/out, create mosaics, create puzzles, make slideshows, draw, add stamps, copy/paste and a bunch of other basic edits! You can even invert the colours, change it to black and white, or change the brightness. MP3s can be added to slideshows as well. You can send your pictures and slideshows to your friends on your friends list through WiiConnect24 (this function requires you to be connected to the internet).
Forecast Channel: You can view weather forecasts from around the globe. This requires internet access.
News Channel: You’ll get automatically updated news articles from whoever Nintendo decides to work with for this service. Topics can be sorted by category. You can also use a 3D globe to find out where the news is happening.
Read the complete list after the jump.
The most intriguing new feature revealed at the Nintendo Wii Conferences was that of the “Wii Channel” system. Wii Channels are useful little things that were designed to make everyone in the household want to use the Wii. It’s appealing to the non-gamers of the world to try out the Wii and get used to the controller. The progression from that is using it for games. So what kind of channels will be used to get even the most stubborn parents and spouses to play? Well, let’s take a look:
Disc Channel: This is what you click to access your GCN and Wii games.
Mii Channel: This lets you create your own avatar for use in games like Wii Sports. You can transfer the avatar into your WiiMote then use it when you play it at a friend’s house! There are tons of options to make your avatar look like anybody you want.
Photo Channel: This allows you to display your pictures from any SD Memory card onto the TV. Not only that, you can also zoom in/out, create mosaics, create puzzles, make slideshows, draw, add stamps, copy/paste and a bunch of other basic edits! You can even invert the colours, change it to black and white, or change the brightness. MP3s can be added to slideshows as well. You can send your pictures and slideshows to your friends on your friends list through WiiConnect24 (this function requires you to be connected to the internet).
Forecast Channel: You can view weather forecasts from around the globe. This requires internet access.
News Channel: You’ll get automatically updated news articles from whoever Nintendo decides to work with for this service. Topics can be sorted by category. You can also use a 3D globe to find out where the news is happening.
Wii Shop Channel: This is where you buy “Wii Points” or use your Wii Points to buy Virtual Console games and other downloadable content. Think of it as the Xbox Live Marketplace. One product you can buy is the Opera Web Browser. Virtual Console games become new channels that you can select from the main screen.
Internet Channel: The Opera Web Browser will cost Wii Points to download. However, sources indicate that it will be free to download until June 2007. If you buy a Wii after that, you’ll need to pay. It allows you to access the internet on your TV. It does support Macromedia Flash so you’ll be able to find a lot of fun things to do as you go through those boring commercial breaks.
Wii Message Board: You can leave messages for anyone else who uses the Wii. Nintendo makes an analogy saying it’s like putting post-its on a refrigerator. However, it goes beyond just that. This is where you’ll be updated when one of your games receives an update (such as a new map or weapon). You can also send messages to those on your friends list to display on their message boards. Not only that, but you can even exchange text messages and photos with cell phones! It is calendar based so from how I understand it, you may be able to set up messages in advance.
This is Nintendo’s secret way of getting your family members to play the Wii. We already know that the photo feature is going to get a lot of attention from parents, uncles, and aunts, which means our family members might hog the Wii!
It seems the Wii will also have a channel which will let you play home videos. Exactly which one is not yet known.