Late Monday night your Wii's blue light should have flickered to your delight. With all your might... ah who cares any more.
Anyway, the Wii firmware was updated to version 3.3 on Monday, with the update citing a new feature in the Mii channel: the ability to drag and drop Miis from the Mii Plaza to the Mii Parade, allowing you to store more than 100 Miis.
The update also, somewhat stealthily, kills the Twilight hack, meaning if you don't have the Homebrew Channel installed already and want to run homebrew on your Wii, do that before updating. Fortunately, the update does not appear to disable/delete the Homebrew Channel if you already have it installed. It does, however, make the Wii Freeloader completely obsolete...
Bummer. Check after the break for the full message.
Announced at this year's E3, the Check Mii Out channel is now live. The newest channel is available for free in the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel.
Check Mii Out allows you to show off your various Mii creations, download new ones, participate in contests, and vote on other Mii creations. "It's yet another way that we're building fun, interactive communities of Wii owners without charging them extra for the privilege," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications.
The first Mii contest is already live: create Mario without his cap.
Be sure to let us know and/or send us a picture if you're participating!
Check it out. (See what I did there?)
'Read More' for the official press release from earlier this week.
Check Mii Out, the new Wii Channel that lets you share and rate Miis, is set to be launched on the 11th November. Although at the moment, this only appears to be in the US, all the other channels have been launched pretty much simultaneously across the globe. I'm hoping that this remains the case, and the rest of the world will be getting this for next week too.
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 8, 2007 — It’s no secret that fans of Nintendo’s Wii(TM) system love their Mii(TM) characters — those adorably cartoonish caricatures of friends and family members that can be used in games like Wii Sports(TM). Some of the more artistic fans have even taken it upon themselves to make Miis of celebrities, politicians and fictional characters. Nintendo supports consumers’ creative spirit with the Nov. 11 evening launch of the Check Mii Out Channel. This free new channel can be downloaded from the WiiWare(TM) section of the Wii Shop Channel by people who have their Wii systems connected to the Internet.
“The Check Mii Out Channel lets people show off their Mii creations and vote on those created by others,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. “It’s yet another way that we’re building fun, interactive communities of Wii owners without charging them extra for the privilege.”
In the Posting Plaza, users can submit, exchange or just browse Miis posted by others in their region or worldwide. The channel offers the ability to look at a random selection of 1,000 Miis or to see just the current or all-time favorites. Players have a variety of ways to search for specific Miis, including by the name of its creator or by a number specific to each Mii. Once users have found that “special Mii,” they can even tag their favorites or import them to their own Wii systems.
The contest section of the Check Mii Out Channel challenges users to submit Mii creations to represent a specific person, character or theme. These could include historical figures (Abraham Lincoln or Vincent Van Gogh), fictional characters (the Tooth Fairy or the New Year’s Baby) or descriptive themes (”the biggest bully ever” or “the overbearing boss”). Users can then vote on Miis submitted by others to determine the Mii that best fits the challenge. Each contest will generally last two weeks: one for creating and submitting Miis, and the second week for people to vote on the results.
The Check Mii Out Channel is the latest addition to other fun, interactive informational channels, such as the News Channel, Everybody Votes Channel and Forecast Channel. Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.
I love the sound of the contest section - there could be a lot of fun to be had with that.
Football (proper football, a.k.a. soccer for some) is the best sport in the world. Anybody who tells you otherwise is WRONG. The FIFA football games have been a mainstay on consoles for an age, but have sadly been going downhill for some time. FIFA 99 was the best incarnation, in my opinion, and one of the best football games made. It's sad for me to say that I have now gone away from the FIFA series, and headed to the greener pastures of the Pro Evolution games. Unfortunately they have not yet made it onto a Nintendo home console, but the release of Pro Evo on the DS shows that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
The Pro Evo series has always been more realistic, and the last FIFA game on the GameCube had been completely redesigned to combat this. So obviously the next game was going to be even more serious, and include a party mode for you to use your Mii's with. Wait a minute! That doesn't sound right...
It saddens me that this is true. Yes, the Wii is fun, and I like party games as much as the next guy, but I really don't want the Wii to be a machine that is a breeding ground for tacky party games. If the main FIFA game is good, then obviously the party game will be an added bonus, and you won't see me complaining too much more. Let's just hope that they haven't put all their effort into the " Footii Party" side of the game.
They've chosen Ronaldinho to be the face of the game, and have created a special Mii just for him. Some say he's the best player in the world. I say they haven't seen me play. Read more for some screenshots and more details of this addition to the FIFA family.
One of my favourite aspects of the Wii Channels has to be the music. I think that Nintendo have got it spot on with regards to the feel and style of each channel, be it the cheesy easy-listening classic that is the Wii Shop, or the so-very-catchy tune that plays whilst I create my Mii army.
A group called ROBOTOBOTS obviously feel the same, and have produced remixed versions of some of the channel music. The tracks they have created are:
Breaking Points (Wii Shop Channel)
Built To Diistroy (Wii Mii Channel)
Revolve Around Planets (Wii Forecast Channel)
To listen to the tracks, head over to ROBOTOBOT's Myspace page. I think they're great, and currently have them playing in the background as I type this. I think my favourite is definitely "Built to Diistroy" - gotta love them Miis.
I woke up this morning to the bright blue light of a Wii message. "Someone's sent me a Valentine's message", I thought, but no! The message was from Nintendo. Out of the blue, the have announced a brand new channel for the Wii! EDIT: I've only just checked my PMs, and it seems that WiiDark found it also, and sent me some details. Ta! DOUBLE EDIT And I've just seen that StrawHousePig mentioned it in the forum. I am so slack!
The "Everybody Votes" Channel is downloadable from the Wii Shop after you have performed a system update, and lets you cast your vote on a series of polls.
You have to first set the region that you live in, and then select your Mii that you want to represent yourself. Once this has been done you have to choose an active poll to vote in. They're not that serious (as yet), and include topics such as "how do you prefer your eggs? Boiled or fried?". To cast your vote you have to drag you Mii to the correct space and vote.
Pretty neat stuff. You have a set time to cast your vote on the active poll, and you can even predict what you think the outcome will be. It's not the greatest piece of software made, but I think it's a great idea, and will lead to hours of amusement. it's very well presented, and I love the use of the Mii's. You can have up to 6 different Mii's loaded onto the channel at once.
What use is it? If you like people's opinions and facts and figures then it's very interesting. I have a sneaky feeling this'll help Nintendo do some market research too!
I love the Mii Plaza. I can loose several hours creating Mii's, sorting them, picking them up and shaking them. The Mii Parade, however, doesn't provide me with as much joy. I like the celebrity Mii's people create, and the weird and wacky ones that amble across my screen. I get disappointed, however, when "boring" Mii's turn up. Mii's like "Mum", or "Colin". Who are these people? Why do I want them to watch me bowl? I don't mind that I've got 5 Hitlers, 3 Jesus's, and a couple of Jack Blacks. I do mind that I have dozens of unknown people, who don't even look funny. Maybe I'm just grumpy, but this has stopped me checking the Parade on a more regular basis. I don't see much point, as I rarely find a Mii that I think is interesting enough to add to my Plaza. I have made sure that only my finest Mii's have the illustrious honour of being granted "Mingle" status, and any Mii's that I think people wouldn't appreciate stay grounded at home. Maybe I'm a bit of a Mii snob
My parade has been growing steadily, and I have around 70 Mii's that grace my Wii. I thought that was an admirable effort, but then I saw the clip, which you can find after the break. Now my opinion of the Mii Parade has changed. I want more Mii's, boring or not. I want a constant stream of mini people running towards me. I want a Mii army of such magnitude that I can begin to try to take over the world! Muhahahahhahahha
You may have already found this site, but yesterday I was introduced to Mii Plaza.net. It's a site where you can upload your Miis, much like our very own Mii Album. There are literally hundreds of Miis already on the site, and it amazes me how creative people can be when creating their Miis. On some there are detailed instructions on how to recreate the Miis on your own.
I love the Lego Star Wars Miis, and I recommend you seek them out. E.T. (left) is also a personal favourite of mine. I now have a few more additions to my Mii collection I just wish I was as creative as some of the folks out there (although I am very proud of my Brian Blessed that I created). There are many different categories that the Miis have been sorted into, and it's a nice site.
If you have a Mii that you have created, and are particularly proud of, send us a link, and we'll place it in our own album for you.
Well, EA said Wii would get an exclusive version. And even though their Wii support has been growing (presumably because they had originally written Wii off, then came to their senses), this definately shows some respect for Nintendo's Mii revolution.
While it remains to be revealed if the game will support your Mii Channel creations (which you would then further edit once in the game's engine) or if you need to start from scratch, the options certainly eclipse what the Mii Channel offers in the form of clothing, hair, detail and overall style.
Not much is known but as you can see from the video embedded below, it certainly has heavy anime influences (see facial expressions and clothing) and seems to bring back some SimTown memories. While other versions of the Sims have led to more adult themes, this one seems to appeal to me in the same way Animal Crossing does: simplicity. That's not to say this is a dumbed down version, features are still unknown.
NGCFrance has some additional screenshots here.
The game's site is in Japanese.
After watching the video, what are your thoughts?
I just got a call from Neeecole, who was waiting in a lengthy line at our local Gamestop.
Wii got one!
She preordered Wii, a second Remote, a second Nunchuck, and a classic controller in addition to the cornucopia of Wii and DS games I still have reserved. They let people in 30 minutes early (9:30am EST) because it was so cold. She was 5th in line and had arrived a little after 6:30am EST. Neeecole shared a blanket with a less prepared line mate.
FACT: PS3 line people do not share the blanky.
Even though Gamestop is not technically guaruntiiiing anything by the language on the receipt, it hasn't changed from back in the day when I helped with the PS2 launch. It basically says I'm entitled to be one of the people waiting at the door the moment they go on sale, and I have a spot before anyone who hasn't pre-ordered subject to available stock (reported to be 30 on launch day, regular shipments to follow). So I am confident I will be playing my system a little after 12am on November 19th.
Who else has Wii locked in? Accesoriis? Games? And what is the first thing you will do on the system?
Joystiq.com have manage to find a Flash Mii Maker so that people can start experimenting with Mii's pre-Wii.
The Mii maker can be found here, and here is my (EDIT) second attempt: Why not have a go at making your own Mii, and display it in the Mii Maker Thread, the fast track route to the Mii Album!
N-Europe have got a report that the Wii site that will handle all the Wi-Fi elements won't have specific friend codes for each game, as per the DS. Instead the console itself will be assigned a code (or presumably one per Mii).
This will please a lot of people who have been unhappy with the DS's online multiplayer method. Although N-Europe claim this is confirmed, they provide no link, so I'll treat it as a rumour in the meantime.
According to Shinichiro Tamaki of Nintendo's Integrated R&D team;
Basically, we've designed it so that you can exchange information with your registered friends. I'll give an example of the kind of information that could be exchanged. Let's say someone buys a new game. When they switch on their console, a question could appear on the screen: "Do you want to let your friends know you have bought this game?" If you select "Yes", the message "X has bought the game Y!" will pop up on your friends' Message Boards. You can send messages like that from within the game, or you can make your own message to send to your friends. Actually, the example I just gave is still under discussion and has not been finalised yet. But I think it gives you an idea of the kinds of things that would be possible.
This suggests that a single friend code would be used to identify your friend based solely on their console, but as he says, it hasn't been finalised. Let's just hope that means they're fine tuning the idea and not thinking of scrapping it altogether.
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