If you have your Wii console connected to the internet, WiiWare will let you enjoy exclusive titles, from enchanting adventures to creative and quirky gaming challenges, produced with the unique features of the system in mind. Like Virtual Console, WiiWare can be accessed by simply selecting the appropriate icon in the Wii Shop Channel.

You will find something to suit all tastes on WiiWare. Get ready to experience the latest stage in the evolution of Wii and enjoy a raft of imaginative titles at affordable prices.

Introducing WiiWare – a new family of games for Wii, available from the Wii Shop Channel. Experience genre-defying gameplay, new takes on old favorites – and much more. WiiWare games are downloadable directly to your Wii in exchange for various levels of Wii Points. Just make sure your Wii is connected to the internet, and you can play new Wii games in seconds.

SOURCE: Nintendo

It has dawned on me that although I’m spending a lot of wii related time, I seem to be neglecting my wii in favor its wiimote. With this in mind it was time for a new game. Ok I admit it I also wanted a game that pushed the wiimote to its functional limits (its nice when you can claim gameplay as research ).

2. ZACK & WIKI: ONE BIG PUZZLE

Zack & Wiki (Z&W) fulfills both needs and both brilliantly to boot. Each level breaks down as a well thought out puzzle containing items, objects and booby-traps.

Anther nice touch within Z&W is that you don’t really control the main characters but rather guide them, just click on a levels special items, objects and characters and the two hero’s will walk toward and interact with them.

Its that simple…So far the quality of the puzzles has been second to none and are some of smartest and most rewarding challenges I have come across in any game of the same ilk, ever. Another great feature has to be the use it makes of the wiimote.

The majority of items have to be operated similarly to their real life counterparts. You dig with spades, saw with saws and even play the flute. I particularly love that one. Wish I’d thought of it moment there.

Sometimes you need to just take a step back and be inspired by the masters and remember why you bought the console in the first place.

The hi-tech firm has released a game making tool called WiiWare that gives budding game makers the data they need to use the console and its innovative controller.

Wii owners will be able to download the games through net channels accessible via the console.

Nintendo said the first games would be available for download in early 2008.

Fresh ideas

Anyone wanting to use the WiiWare tool will need a basic knowledge of programming, said Nintendo. It lets people start creating their game on a PC but it must be fine-tuned and finished on the console itself.
The company said it expected game makers to use the Wii’s motion sensitive controller to create “fresh takes on established genres”.

“Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president in a statement.

Once quality tested by Nintendo, games created via the WiiWare service will be put on the Wii Shop channel so owners can download them.

Wii owners must spend points to get the games. Owners buy Wii points by credit card or by purchasing cards in stores.

The move by Nintendo follows a similar initiative by Microsoft. It has made an express version of its XNA game making tools available for students and hobbyists so they can craft titles for the Xbox.

Source:bbc.co.uk

Source: Coding4fun.net

The University of Western Australia has created a cheap way to navigate immersive 3D environments. To accomplish this task, they modify DarwiinRemote for OS X. The WiiRemote provided a low cost alternative to other controllers used for immersive environemnts.

Taken from the highlighted page:

The exercise illustrated here was to evaluate the potential of the Wii as a low cost wireless 3D interface device that could be used for interaction within an immersive environment. The software being interfaced was all local so there was maximal flexibility to add direct Wii/Bluetooth functionality into the application code.

The result was a usable but inaccurate navigation device, at least as far as the accelerometers were concerned …. the buttons were fine but then that is similar to a Bluetooth keyboard.

These tests were not performed using the IR sensor and that can undoubtedly be used to improve the accuracy when used in conjunction with the accelerometers.

Update, Taken from highlighted page:

As expected the IR sensor makes a huge difference to the accuracy of the Wii as a pointing device. Unfortunately just using that only results in navigation in the plane perpendicular to the Wii axis, again not much more than a Bluetooth mouse. An interesting experiment would be to use the IR sensor as a form of stabilisation for the 3D mouse navigation, something I expect the Nintendo does.