The first wave of WiiWare games have arrived in Japan, and it's pretty obvious right off the bat that gamers are going to need a discerning eye when selecting their downloads on Nintendo's new service. While some titles – such as Dr. Mario, or My Life as a King – are showing the strengths of the new Wii Shop Channel options, games like Tenshi no Solitaire are doing quite the contrary.
WiiWare is off to an okay start, but it's going to need some work if Nintendo wants to compete with Xbox Live Arcade.
Wired thinks it's fine that the quality of the games varies wildly, but Nintendo should take a bit more of a hold on the pricing structure. Wired can see having cheapo games like Angel's Solitaire right next to obviously higher-budget productions like Okiraku Ping-Pong, but why do they cost the same five bucks?
"WiiWare is off to an okay start, but it's going to need some work if Nintendo wants to compete with Xbox Live Arcade"
actually developers are more happy with Wiiware then XBLA.......so i didnt read on xD
Steven Rodriguez writes for NWR:
"WiiWare is live in Japan, and with it comes a brand-new slate of downloadable games. In order to facilitate this, the Wii required a system update to enable the WiiWare area in the Wii Shop Channel. You may have already updated your Wii console with the update, which after WiiWare eventually launches in Western territories, will make your Wii Shop Channel main menu look like this:"
Looks like it has potential. I wonder if you'll be able to try a game demo before buying it?
Nintendo won't let us do that, because nobody will buy the stupid games they've released. there are 2 games that are possibly worth downloading, and even then it looks sketchy.
Nintendo is not the only one releasing games on WiiWare, and it's not like there won't be more games coming in the future.
Nintendo says they don't require demos, which probably means that they don't forbid but also don't encourage them.
From the looks of it, Wired really figured that Angel's Solitaire for WiiWare would be dripping with moe. A cute pair of devil and angel girls who watch you play solitaire? Surely they'll be making all kinds of suggestive commentary as you play.
As it turns out, no, they just sit there.
