Nintendo released the latest Wii System Update yesterday, upgrading some of the console's core systems, including the message board and address book.
The most obvious changes appear on the main menu, most notably the addition of a digital clock at the bottom displaying the current time. The news and weather channel icons now display the latest headlines and local forecast, and the message icon in the bottom right flashes and sounds when there is a new message to read.
The address book has become more flexible, allowing users to rearrange their contacts and register new ones by pressing A on when highlighting a blank slot. A record of any messages sent appears in the Today's Accomplishments message, and scrolling through the longer messages is now similar to scrolling through the Internet Channel.
The Wii Shopping Channel has also been rearranged. The new welcome screen now features four recommended titles at the top of the screen, including their price in points. The 'Titles You've Downloaded' option now appears on the main menu, and retro fans can now search through the virtual console by genre and publisher to make it easier to search for a specific title.
It has been reported that should you download this update on a modded Wii, your system will malfunction.
Nice one, Ninty. The Wii's interface has never been the most user-friendly, certainly when not compared with its more thorough counterparts on rival systems. However, you have to ask why we couldn't have had this at launch?
Presumably during the design stage, they tried out a range of different menus and decided which features they did and didn't like. Do Nintendo honestly expect to believe that not one of their execs thought of putting a clock there? Did no one think 'Hold on - five years of retro titles is going to be an absolute bitch to search through alphabetically'?
Like I said, it's a nice update, and a promising one since it came out of the blue. It hints that Nintendo still have a few tricks up their sleeve, and that further improvements are more than possible, but did it take nine months for them to work this out?
The most obvious changes appear on the main menu, most notably the addition of a digital clock at the bottom displaying the current time. The news and weather channel icons now display the latest headlines and local forecast, and the message icon in the bottom right flashes and sounds when there is a new message to read.
The address book has become more flexible, allowing users to rearrange their contacts and register new ones by pressing A on when highlighting a blank slot. A record of any messages sent appears in the Today's Accomplishments message, and scrolling through the longer messages is now similar to scrolling through the Internet Channel.
The Wii Shopping Channel has also been rearranged. The new welcome screen now features four recommended titles at the top of the screen, including their price in points. The 'Titles You've Downloaded' option now appears on the main menu, and retro fans can now search through the virtual console by genre and publisher to make it easier to search for a specific title.
It has been reported that should you download this update on a modded Wii, your system will malfunction.
Nice one, Ninty. The Wii's interface has never been the most user-friendly, certainly when not compared with its more thorough counterparts on rival systems. However, you have to ask why we couldn't have had this at launch?
Presumably during the design stage, they tried out a range of different menus and decided which features they did and didn't like. Do Nintendo honestly expect to believe that not one of their execs thought of putting a clock there? Did no one think 'Hold on - five years of retro titles is going to be an absolute bitch to search through alphabetically'?
Like I said, it's a nice update, and a promising one since it came out of the blue. It hints that Nintendo still have a few tricks up their sleeve, and that further improvements are more than possible, but did it take nine months for them to work this out?
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