If you have been keeping up with recent Wii news, chances are you have heard of a little service that Nintendo is unleashing this month onto the U.S. called WiiWare. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's this little service that will give developers the ability to create both games and applications for the Wii. These products are then made available to the user via the Wii Shop Channel. The selling point is that there are almost no restrictions and the developers own the property, not Nintendo. So as long as the developer follows the ESRB rating policies, any type of game or any type of Wii application can be made. This is a whole new world for Nintendo as well as a reason for some of us to dust off and start using our Wii again.
With WiiWare, it appears that some of these games and applications will utilize the currently growing online capabilities of the system. Examples of this is the remake of an old puzzle game named Dr. Mario Online RX and a brand new title Major League Eating: The Game. Major League Eating has been confirmed to have online, err, "battles" and from the title of the Dr. Mario game, I'm sure it is safe to assume that it will also have online battles. And this is just basic online abilities. With practically no restrictions, developers can add a slew of online features.
So what can this mean for Wii owners, as well as old Nintendo fans? This means that with the correct rights, a developer could possibly recreate games with online features and Wii specific controls. So for example, with the correct rights a developer could recreate GoldenEye 64 with online gameplay as well as Wii controls. Or maybe a Star Wars Episode I: Racer remake that has online races and leaderboards. Hey, if Digital Eclipse could remake the TMNT 1989 Arcade game despite needing several sets of rights, I'm sure any old Nintendo game could be brought to the Wii with new functionality.
And really, why shouldn't some be remade this way? The virtual console is great for a lot of games, since there is really no need to remake some of the old ēlassics (I don't think I need Super Mario Bros. to have online play), but there are games that fans have been begging Nintendo to look into remaking with online play and other features. With WiiWare, the "straight port restriction" that seems to be tied to the virtual console (with exceptions to certain games; I'm looking at you Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream) will not be an issue and thus the possibility of remakes is much closer to reality, despite issues over rights ownership.
We can only hope that all this can become reality. The ability to do so is now available to the developers, but the only question is "Who will?" I'm eagerly looking forward to the future of WiiWare and I hope to see that some developer somewhere will consider this.
