The Nintendo Wii’s online skills help it roll every console Ninty has ever released into one downloadable catalogue for you, but in an age of streaming movies and dedicated deathmatch servers, is that enough? We take a look at the Nintendo Wii online features three years on, in our in depth review.
Read the rest of our Nintendo Wii review:
Nintendo Wii review: Three years on
Nintendo Wii review: Motion controls
Nintendo Wii review: Design and build
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that for online gaming, the Wii cannot match the Xbox 360 and PS3. Yes, the WiiConnect24 feature which updates your Wii in standby mode is incredibly helpful, but Nintendo simply hasn’t focused on creating a tightly integrated service like Xbox Live and the PlayStation network offer.
There’s no standardised Gamerscore or Trophy equivalent, and it’s up to individual developers to provide their own connection and game set up lobbies. Of course, it’s by no means a real failing, since the Wii isn’t aimed at hardcore gamers, and the most addictive online games (Mario Kart) provide their own channel and score tally anyway. But we’d love to have seen a proper multiplayer gaming hub by now, with histories and scores from across games tied to your Mii avatar. But no.
We do like Nintendo’s system for online features and downloads however. Install a new feature (the web browser, for instance), and a new channel will appear on the Wii homescreen, complete with animated icons clearly visible from the sofa: you just point the remote to it and tap. It makes the best use of the Nintendo Wii’s limited flash storage possible, as you can save surplus channels to an SD card, and load them directly from it too.
Undoubtedly, the jewel in the Wii’s online crown is the Virtual Console, a place to download classic N64, SNES and NES titles, as well as games of old from Sega and others. It’s regularly updated and bursting to the brim with AAA grade games: if you didn’t grow up with Nintendo, you’re in for a serious treat discovering old treasures. You’ll need a classic gamepad, and the pricing can be a bit arbitrary, but a true classic worth the cost of admission. Combine it with the Wii’s GameCube support, and you have all of Nintendo’s home hardware squeezed into one svelte box.
The game downloads don’t stop there though: the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel has plenty of brand new games to try out. They’re often short, but cheap, and while it’s taken some time to really fill out, there are a few real gems to try out now, including the Tales Of Monkey Island series, and Mega Man games. We won’t lie: there are more new and enjoyable indie games to be had on Xbox Live, but it’s definitely worth a look, even if you’ve not exhausted the Virtual Console.
The Nintendo Wii’s net connection also lets you surf the internet of course, using a version of Opera’s browser. Once upon a time, we grumbled at Nintendo’s greed in charging for downloading the Internet Channel, but thankfully it’s now free, and it works well, especially since you can plug a USB keyboard in to type. Basic Flash video sites like YouTube work fine, but many on-demand sites still don’t however.
It’s this scant regard for media on the Wii which irks us most in 2010. Granted, four years ago, nobody could have anticipated on-demand web video taking off in quite the way it has, but the Wii is still perfectly capable of handling movies and TV. BBC iPlayer streaming the UK (and NetFlix in the US soon) is a very useful exception that proves the rule, and given the enormous install base the Wii now boasts, Nintendo is missing out on a tidy profit and plenty of customer satisfaction by inking a few deals and giving us film rentals. And since the Wii, has Wi-Fi, we’d love to be able to stream media from a computer on our home network, but that too is still off the table.
All in all, the Nintendo Wii hasn’t lived up to its online potential. It feels like Nintendo has given us a few channels and called it a day: there are few major updates we know are in the pipeline. Newcomers will be entertained, but anyone hunting for a set top box to rule them all should go with Sony or Microsoft instead.
Read the rest of our Nintendo Wii review:
Nintendo Wii review: Three years on
Nintendo Wii review: Motion controls
Nintendo Wii review: Design and build
