Chintendo Vii Spreading Throughout Asia?

Way back in February, MyWiiNews brought you news of the Chintendo Vii, as it was reviewed and compared to our lovable console, the Wii. Most of you guys may think it is funny and well… hilarious even. But really, with such rampant piracy in some parts of Asia, the Chintendo Vii can be very disturbing as hell.

Chintendo Vii in Japan

Yes, the Chintendo Vii has actually entered Japanese soil. The very same soil where Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario, and even Nintendo itself was born! And I’m guessing it has been that way since at least December 2007.

Just look at these recent pictures, including Vii Sports:

How About the Rest of Asia?

Living in the Philippines, I definitely saw some of these Chintendo Vii’s myself being sold on selected stores and even on some prominent malls all across Metro Manila. Too bad I haven’t got any pics, but I tell you, it’s not in any way funny. But you know what they say: Imitation is definitely the best form of flattery. So, I guess it’s all fine, right? Unless someone actually (and seriously) buys the system, which is when problems arise. I know I wont.

By the way, it’s already quite old, but you can always check out the Japanese’s reaction and thoughts on the Vii in the video below:

Reference: Akiba Blog

‘Television Friend Channel’ Hits Wii’s in Japan!

Wii’s all over Japan were illuminating their blue lights today, asking the Japanese to download a new channel! This new channel was the Terebi no Tomo Channel which translates to English as Television Friend Channel. The new channel can be downloaded free of charge!

The Televsion Friend Channel is actually a very nifty TV Guide, it offers information about programs one week before they air. You can even search for your favorite program using keywords or genres. The program guide also includes a ’stamp’ feature which allows you to mark your favorite programs in Mii shaped themes. If you stamp a program and you have put in your cell-phone number and/or e-mail address into your Wii, it will alert you 30 minutes before the marked show has started. You will also recieves alerts from shows that your Wii friends have stamped. The Channel also tracks the stamps of Wii users world wide and rates programs based on viewer interest.

Your Wii-mote will also be able to act as a remote control for your TV that allows you to change the channel and the volume. This may seem impossible due to the fact that the Wii-motes signal is sent to the sensor bar, but Nintendo has acheived this by having the sensor bar send out a signal, that bounces off a wall and back to your TV. (Amazing isn’t it?!?)

There is no conformation yet that the channel will hit the U.S. but it seems likely! Unfortunately, Nintendo of Europe stated that the new channel would not make it into their region.

Let’s cross our fingers and hope that we will recieve this cool new channel too!

Bring your Wii up-to-date, with this latest update! (3.2)

If your Wii is hooked up to the net, you may have noticed that the disk slot is illuminating a pretty blue light. Don’t worry, you Wii is not about to explode and its not suffering from hardware failure like your 360 most likely is, you just received a new update from Nintendo!

But don’t go jumping for joy just yet, it’s just a minor update and there is nothing to get excited about. Once you update your Wii and load a game into it, you will notice that on the Disk Channel there is a notification streaming across it. Thats your update, pretty bland huh? Oh well, make sure you keep your Wii up to date!

Is Nintendo too scared to enter the true online world?

Since launch, the Wii has been great and has had a tremendous success. With amazing titles coming from both 1^st party and 3^rd party publishers, the Wii is outselling every console there is. Nintendo is rich, and Miyamoto and his gang are jumping for joy.

But is this overwhelming success keeping them from seeing that the Wii needs some quick improvements? Or are they worried that if they change, their precious casual crowd will turn their backs on them. No one really knows what going on over there but we do know that Nintendo needs to change their clunky online community.

The first thing Nintendo has to do, is take some small risks, for example, instead of using those annoying friend-codes, let us make our own Wii-code, similar to the ones that Xbox-live and PSN use. We all know that the friend-codes get extremely annoying, especially when you have individual friend-codes for every single online game on the console. Nintendo is trying to keep us safe, but there aren’t any stories of children getting molested by playing with a random person on Xbox-Live. Parents can very easily enforce the rule of, “no playing online.” If parents really didn’t want their kid playing with random people, they should be the ones to enforce it, not Nintendo.

The Wii does have great online games for the console, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 being one of them. But here’s the second problem, no voice chat. When you don’t have voice chat, it really takes away from the multiplayer portion of the game. Not being able to tell your team where and enemy team is coming from really hurts you and your team. EA wanted to include voice chat in the game, but Nintendo would not allow them to do so. Battalion Wars 2 also included online multiplayer and they even included an online co-op mode, but trying to play the campaign with some random person around the world is hard and clunky if you can’t tell them what your going to do.

In a recent interview, Masahiro Sakurai stated why Super Smash Bros: Brawl did not feature voice chat. Here is a direct quote-

“Well, when I first started making Smash Bros. Brawl, I thought it would be wonderful if online battles between friends had voice chat and potentially keyboard based chat as well. But there are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding communication on the Wii platform and so it was apparent to me that it just wouldn’t come together, we weren’t going to be able to do it, so we decided to cancel that feature”.

The fact that Nintendo would not even let one of their greatest franchises use voice chat is very concerning. It brings up the question, “will we every get voice chat?”

We may be in luck though. Reggie Fils-Aime, the president over at Nintendo of America, said that he would, “not be surprised at all” if a headset came to the Wii. Here is a direct quote-

“Since Nintendo found this tech and peripheral on the Nintendo DS, I wouldn’t be surprised at al if the feature appeared on Wii. It’s something we value and constantly look at”

The Wii is doing really good, and I feel that it could do better if it fixed these things. I don’t know if Nintendo knows this, but casual gamers like to have a good online experience as well. With VC games already here, and Wii-Ware games coming soon, the future of Wii’s online is looking better. But does Nintendo have the guts to make these necessary changes? I guess we just have to wait and see!

And the winner is…… Console wars in the 08.

2007 was a year of great prosperity for the video game industry. While Playstation 3 had its first full year of existence, the boys over at Microsoft continued their success with the release of Halo 3, and other critically acclaimed exclusives.(Bioshock, Mass Effect etc..) But it was Nintendo’s next-gen offering, the Wii (also in its first full year) that stole the show.

The explosion of the Wii onto the market took everyone by surprise. With its “family oriented” appeal, and unique controls, the Wii rubbed everyone the right way. So much so, that towards the end of the year, trying to find a Wii was like trying to find Osama. Needless to say, things are looking up for Nintendo in 2008. With DS being the overall best seller last year, and the emergence of the Wii, 08 is shaping up to be the company’s most profitable yet.

While Nintendo led the charge commercially, there is still a lot to be desired by hardcore gamers. Since the Wii is geared more to the younger gaming fan, those who want to experience the revolutionary innovations of the system are taking a back seat because of the lack of “adult” games. Sure there are classic franchises like Mario that have made the jump, and even unique titles such as No More Heroes to keep us interested. But other than that there are a bunch of “hot pocket” titles, that while they are satisfying, we find ourselves hungry again in an hour. We need steak and potatoes. That blockbuster title(s) that will have us on the edge of our seat for weeks. Grant it, Super Mario Galaxy is a spectacular game, with a ton of replay value, but after you have found all the stars, it’s like enough with the plumber already. I’m sorry, but I can’t identify with Mario the way I did when I was 9. Therefore, I need something else. I’m not saying I need a “KILL, KILL, KILL” title, but a thinking man’s game. Something to stimulate my left hemisphere as well my left wrist.( damn nunchuk..)

There are, however, those other pesky consoles to worry about. With the Playstation 3 having a great holiday season , Sony is poised to make a charge this year. With a ton of blockbuster titles on deck(GTA IV, MGS4, Little Big Planet), the competition is getting stiff, and Nintendo better step up to the plate.

Though it has its flaws like a lack of titles, and no Blu-ray/DVD player (what’s that about?), with its unique controls and online capabilities, the potential for amazing games on the Wii is limitless. But potential unfulfilled can become something much simpler. Just a word.