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Nintendo Releases Wii Browser For Free, Updates Flash
An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo has released an update for the Wii Internet Channel (a version of the Opera browser). It is now a free download (if you already paid for it, you get a free NES game), and finally supports Flash 9 content after being limited to Flash 7 ever since it was launched in late 2006."
...because you'll need them with all the crashing that browser is going to do. Every browser that runs Flash 9 and up without some sort of isolation or sandbox crashes frequently. I hope it doesn't hard lock the console.
Oh this is just great! finally webgames on my wii! woohoo :) to bad the onscreen keyboard is a bit sucky :)
...for watching videos on YouTube?
Haven't even bothered to install the browser so far, my wife's netbook runs circles around a Wii for couch surfing.
Actually I'm genuinely curious: Who uses the Wii browser and for what?
.: Max Romantschuk
http://www.youtube.com/xl is an easy way to access youtube content from your wii
Works perfectly in mine with the OLDER version of the internet channel
There are pretty much no new games for it.
That has been true of the wii for most of it's life, yet oddly...
I think it has peaked and is on the way down.
...it has a long way it would need to fall before it reaches the other two
The game developers probably have realized that even though the Wii has a better market penetration, the people that have it at home just use it for WiiFit and similar stuff, not gaming. Nintendo is the only one gaining from the Wii sales.
I haven't bought a game since we got it. It was deadweight until I found the Homebrew Channel.
The Wii has the highest number of third party million sellers this generation.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Someone better tell the Unity Game Engine developers then, they just introduced a new plugin for Wii (and I'm sure they're not the only ones).
I don't know about that... Remember when the Wii was the "cheap" system? Now we have a $200 xbox and a $300 ps3, both half their original launch prices. But the Wii has actually gone up from $269 to $279 (inflation?). (Canadian prices) There's a reason the other guys are aggressively lowering their prices...
Everybody says this. I don't get it, unless by "games" they mean "first-person shooters." If you can look past all the cooking games and puppy petting simulators, the Wii has a lot of great titles that nobody seems to acknowledge.
enough of this crap. we want the zelda game intended for the wii and chrono trigger on virtual console. get off your fat asses plz plz
It may be that Nintendo do not supply guidelines in writing, but if the develoeprs had actually used a Wii before writing ther games, wii would not be faced with the POS tha is our limited choice. Several times we have gone out to buy games for a party or other excuse, and come back wiht dross because we felt obliged to buy *something*. Honestly, the Wii market is desperate for any new game that is playable.
I remain in home of a multi-player World Mapouka Championship, but I am not hlding my breath. (It it was released, I might end up holding some other part of my anatomy :-)
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
World Mapouka Championship
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
My apartment roommates and I just set up a Wii in our common living area 2 days ago, and I was the one to shell out the $10 to buy the browser (leaving us with 500 points left we don't really plan to use at the moment). Had I waited a few more days, we could have gotten it for free. Curses.
Meh, at least there's a slight compensation =/
Regarding Youtube, we tried watching some videos but I found the framerate to be very laggy, especially in the full-screen mode. I didn't do extensive testing of YoutubeXL vs standard Youtube site, so I don't know the full extent of this issue, but I'm hoping it improves with this upgrade.
Since Nintendo has to approve all games before they're brought to the market, that's mostly their fault.
Wii Fit Plus
Wii Sports Resort
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Red Steel 2
New Super Mario Brothers
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
+ a bunch of 360 ports that probably won't be as good.
+ a bunch of sports games that are better on the Wii thanks to the Wii Motion Plus.
Post Christmas there is:
Mario Galaxy 2
Metroid: Other M
No More Heroes 2
+ a bunch of 360 ports that probably won't be as good.
The ______ Agenda
Well, the Wii IS getting the best version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare outside the PC version, if you can overlook the graphics being pretty dated by comparison.
Your list could be more comprehensive though, I'm really looking forward to Sin & Punishment 2, Red Steel 2 and the new Super Monkey Ball game for Wii Fit, among others.
Sony and Microsoft have to approve all games for their platforms too. In fact, this has been the case with pretty much every system by any company since the NES, to my knowledge.
Anyone know if there are any plans to merge Unite into the version of Opera that ships for the Wii? It would be quite interesting if every Wii owner had a lego-brick server in their lounge..
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Did anyone else notice that Google Maps doesn't work anymore, or is it just me? Well, I'll use WiiEarth (homebrew) meanwhile.
Nothing from nothing leeaaaves nothin'
Since it now supports Flash 9 it seems like it should.
Can anyone comment on how well Hulu works on the Wii with this new version?
the new update disables support for the BBC iPlayer, which "cannot stream video or audio content but it still allows you to browse content.
It is a shame as that is pretty much all I use the Wii internet channel for. My Virgin Media cable box crashes 100% of the time when I try to access iPlayer through its interface. I also don't like watching iPlayer on my computer screen in another room when I want to be on my sofa.
How useful, Finally i might be able to stream decent quality video to my wii :)
It's easy to make something look good when every other word is a qualifier.
Actually I'm genuinely curious: Who uses the Wii browser and for what?
Browsing the web on a very bright 42" monitor is kinda' cool :)
With a wiimote, it means you'll have neither of: a hot laptop on your ball sack; or a desk between the couch and your TV.
It's easy to make something look good when it's the Wii.
I'm still not sure the motion plus is a good move. They should have put more effort into it.
Resort is fun, but the motion plus add-on is relatively easy to confuse. Wave a bit around, and your sword / table tennis bat can already be slightly off (or point in a completely different direction).
Grand slam tennis also supports the motion plus, but it is even worse than Resort (does work well without motion plus though).
I hope they can iron out the bugs, because at the moment I wouldn't want to bet the future of the Wii on it.
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The older version of flash was it's own version of an ad blocker. The new browser is now downloading flash ads from everywhere. It sucks.
It's the third party games people want to know about, everybody knows that Nintendo's games sell craptons but people usually claim noone else can sell Wii games. Of course it only makes sense to compare within the running generation, older generations had more time to build their sales up and for most of the older generations it's not even feasible to make a new game anymore.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
You've never tried the Wii Fit with a snowboarding game, have you?
I've bought over 30 games for it since I bought my console at the end of February. I also finally got around to replacing my old tube tv with a 50" 1920x1080p plasma tv and sound system - not to watch TV, but so that when my friends come over, they can better enjoy playing games. That DVDs look much better is a nice bonus.
Game developers took a while to warm up to the Wii, but now there are tons of titles, and the MotionPlus makes a difference. I expect more games to use it, and even better gameplay, over the next year or two.
I suspect that the problem is more that they fail to reject craptacular games, than that symphonies of artful triumph are rejected for having the wrong number of harps.
Weather channel.
For one thing, Wii has Forecast Channel powered by Weathernews, not the real Weather Channel, unless you've bookmarked weather.com in Internet Channel. In the summer of 2008, I noticed Forecast Channel wasn't nearly as accurate as The Weather Channel. For another, if you're playing the Wii on a TV that gets cable, you can always pause whatever Wii game you're playing, change the channel to The Weather Channel, and watch Local on the 8s.
I am (unfortunately) a Flash dev.
The new Internet Channel supports Flash Lite 3, not Flash 9. Flash Lite 3 supports all the ActionScript Virtual Machine 1 (AVM1) content that will run on or before Flash 9. However, it does not support AVM2 content -- that is, content created with ActionScript 3 or Flex. ActionScript 3 was released with Flash 9. I don't know of any Flash 9 content that isn't written using AS3/AVM2 -- if you're trying to be backwards compatible (say, you're a corporation, and every 0.01% penetration counts) you're gonna code in Flash 7 or 8 anyway.
This opens up a bunch of content written with Flash 8, but it still means you're not going to able to use, say, the vast majority of games on Kongregate or YouTube HD. Besides that, the browser has so little memory available to it that any "high end" Flash content is off-limits anyway. This update really doesn't do much for me.
Give Okami a try. It was originally a PS2 game... but it was almost designed for the wii-mote while on the PS2, so the port made tons of sense, and it works out wonderfully. (You cast magic by drawing on the screen. Yes, even on the PS2 version)
Will we (wii?) ever see the price come down? It has been on the market for almost 3 years now and the price has yet to change.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Britisher here. I prefer to watch BBC programs on iPlayer on my couch via the TV, rather than my room on the PC or on a little laptop.
It's just a pity that the update prevents iPlayer from working.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
Video still... but iPlayer will become useful. Woo!
Except now iPlayer doesn't work.
From one of TFA -
Great, we can see what 'content' we can't actually view or hear.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
Although the updated Internet Channel identifies itself as a v9 Flash Player, it is actually still incapable of playing what anyone considers 'Flash 9 content' such as applications that use Adobe's Flex framework (or indeed anything that needs ActionScript 3).
It's really 'Flash Lite 3.1' as explained at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashlite/faq/
Your motionplus is defective or you're doing something wrong. I've yet to encounter an issue like that, not even during heated swordplay sessions that have spanned several hours.
Did you think that Moore's law would apply to solid-state accelerometers? Most of the cost of an Xbox 360 or PS3 came from the high-end CPUs and GPUs, whereas the Wii's chipset was already at rock-bottom price. Also, Nintendo doesn't sell their stuff at a loss.
Yes, there certainly is.
The Wii Fit GUI is about as bad as it can get. Sometimes a button is preselected, sometimes not. Sometimes you can exit with the B button, sometimes not. The number of times you must press A at the end of an exercise may eventually give you more muscle in your thumb than in your leg (or arthritis). Maybe it's because the Japanese fear over-exertion and insist on breaks.
Don't get me started on other inconsistencies, like being admonished to step faster when I'm already at the top speed allowed. Or being unable to jump directly to the complementary exercises that the game recommends. Not that I can find a reasoning which exercises Wii Fit deems complementary anyway. Speaking of breaks, if you do your recommended 30 minutes in three chunks as the game suggests, it'll still tell you to take a break after the third chunk, no matter how short that was. I could go on. This "game" insults my intelligence. If at least you could turn the background music off... you can't just mute the TV because you need the meagre audio feedback in some exercises.
Despite this I've managed to clock 260+ hours in the 500 days since Wii Fit came out, but I desperately hope that Wii Fit Plus will be a significant improvement to keep my motivation.
The Wii has the highest number of third party million sellers this generation.
Bullshit. 360 has 36 third party million sales games. Wii has only 19. Using stats from here and here.
The game developers probably have realized that even though the Wii has a better market penetration, the people that have it at home just use it for WiiFit and similar stuff, not gaming. Nintendo is the only one gaining from the Wii sales.
Actually, the game developers are going out of business, see their studio closed or are losing tons of money, while Nintendo, the only one making only good games for its console, rakes in the cash.
So to me that just means the game developers look mor like very stupid entities that deserve what happens to them.
Since the launch of the Wii, the choices are still the same: support the console correctly to go up, or go down.
Most of those third party sales on the 360 are emulated games or game remakes from older consoles or ports. As far as ACTUAL UNIQUE third-party games designed specifically for each console, Nintendo has Microsoft BEATEN solidly in the third-party maker section as far as games actually designed for the console, and not just emulated or ported.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
The Wii has the highest number of third party million sellers this generation.
No, there aren't enough good quality 3rd party games on the Wii for that.
But the Wii has the highest number of 3rd party games sold already worldwide, despite the XB360 having 1 year headstart on the market.
I've been playing Call of Duty: World at War on the Wii and I've been pleasantly surprised. I haven't played it on any other console (or on the PC) so I'll probably hear it from people who have but I've been real happy with the controls. I don't use any type of gun to play, just the wiimote with the nunchuck attached, and I really love the controls. I've played other Call of Duty titles on both other consoles and on the PC and I'd pick the Wii controls over them any day.
MG
It must be more common than you'd think. On the reverse sword stages, I get it a lot when doing a wide side-to-side sweep(it's good for getting cheap hits enemies on either side of your current opponent).
If I'm quick, I can get back into position and hit the down button to reset, but I've gotten hit a couple of times when the enemy recovered while my sword still thought I was committing hari-kari.
No, there aren't enough good quality 3rd party games on the Wii for that.
Yes, there are. "Core gamers" don't acknowledge them, though, because they aren't brown.
Most of those third party sales on the 360 are emulated games or game remakes from older consoles
Bullshit. None of those games are emulated or remakes. They were all games developed specifically for the 360. I love this shifting goalpost that came about once it was shown that the GP was false because Microsoft or the 360 always has to lose.
I don't think the lower case "channel" was a typo. I think it's pretty clear he meant "the wii channel what has the weather" without caring what the official name is.
"Local on the 8s" is also 7 minutes too slow if you want the weather now (and you can't check weather around the world with a neat spinning globe interface =D). It is more accurate though.
The enemies of Democracy are
Agreed man COD Wii is awesome! Even if it lacks DLC and Zombie-mode.
Apparently you have not tried Tiger Woods. It is almost flawless. Motion + is fine it just requires actual skill to use.
I'm an old school Nintendo fan from way back, probably like a lot of people here on Slashdot. I still have every console from the NES to the Wii, but I doubt I will be buying Wii HD, or whatever comes next. Nintendo is now for the most part not even trying to cater to its former customers like me. I haven't bought a Wii game since Mario Kart came out last year, though Metroid Prime Trilogy is on my list since I didn't ever get Echoes. Yeah there are a few appealing games on your list above, but for the most part they don't appeal to me.
Speaking of Mario Kart Wii, another thing that Nintendo is doing is dumbing down their games for the masses and taking the skill factor out of their games. You could be leading for the whole race and someone in last gets a blue shell and knocks you down to 5th or 6th or worse. Also, the online portion of the game is very lacking in features, with basically 2 modes only. I can see they want to make it easy for all levels of video game players to get into the action, but please leave in some depth for people who have been playing your franchises since their inception!
With the tons of money they are making on the Wii and DS why doesn't Nintendo actually try to make a NEW franchise or two for core gamers, you know, the ones who kept them alive during their GameCube debacle days. Nintendo is one of the few game companies with the resources to spend making new a IP for their base of fans they've built up over he decades, but all they want to do now is pump out sequels and soccer mom fitness programs. The Metroid: Other M team up with Tecmo is a good idea, why don't they do more of that type of thing? Give funding to other game companies to create new IP or acquire companies who want to make those type of games.
At the end of the day they are a company trying to make as much money as they can, which is understandable, but ignoring or disenfranchising a large portion of you built-in fan base is leaving a lot of money on the table for Microsoft and Sony. I own a 360 and a Wii and Billy and Co. have been getting the lions share of my console gaming dollars over the past year and change and probably will for the foreseeable future.
The new Wii Resort game is pretty damned awesome.
Try it out, it makes the controllers far more ... precise?
None? really? FUCKING REALLY? What about the recent port/remakle of Marvel vs Capcom 2, eh? How about the most recent remake of the old NES 1942 for the 360? Trials HD is just a wannabe remake of fucking EXCITEBIKE for the NES with physics and 3D graphics.
Are you that out of touch with reality? Or are you just that young, given your incredibly high UID?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Nintendo is playing off the familiarity of its franchises to Generation X parents who are now buying video games for their kids. "Guy who bought every Nintendo system ever" is way too hardcore for them and that sort of gamer has never really been their target market.
Have you tried Wii Sports Resort's air plane games? I freaking love them. The controls and the game just work perfectly. If Nintendo would make an on-line version, with a strong focus on racing (a la red bull air races), I'd buy it in a heart beat. The only annoying thing is having to "thrust" for a speed boost.
I haven't bought a Wii game since Mario Kart came out last year
Shame, you're deliberately depriving yourself of a lot of great Wii games.
Exactly. To the parent poster, I've got two motion plus add-on's, bought in different stores, both with this behaviour.
Another comment was about mp working fine with Tiger woods. I've had less difficulties with Tiger, but the same problem did occur every now and then. The problem seems to occur most often with games that require/allow a lot of swinging for more than a few seconds.
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They're fun all right. I just ignore the whole "thrust" business, since you inevitably lose speed when you pull back (and it's more fun to make a sharper turn by tilting sharply, then pulling back to reduce thrust, then pivoting the controller into the turn).
Everyone likes the sword game. Just the thing to take out your frustrations on your boss, your sibling, or your co-worker.
Ping pong is a blast with another person, as opposed to an AI opponent.
Even the bowling is better.
But I can't figure out how to get a nes game. I did pay for the Opera browser, so I'm a bit confused here. Anyone know how?
I want mega man 3, for those who wanted to know.
It's not that I'm not buying Wii games deliberately out of spite. I'm not buying them because there hasn't been much that has interested me. I'm looking forward to Contra Rebirth on WiiWare and Super Mario Kart whenever the heck they decide to release it in North America.
Another annoying thing about Nintendo for me is their love of peripherals. Wii Motion Plus should be $10 max, not $25 (Here in Canada). So now if you want to buy a new Nunchuk/Wii Remote/Motion plus combo you are coming in at about $100! A tad pricey IMO. At some point I may break down and get it when a game I want warrants it, but since its rather expensive I'm not buying it without thinking twice. I think Nintendo is hurting themselves by pricing it so high. I know the high price sentiment has prevented other friends from buying it and the games that work with it, especially since so few games do at the moment. Yeah I know it is packed in with Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods 10, but if you get Resort you pretty much have to buy another Motion Plus since its predominately a multi player game. No thanks Nintendo, I've already blown enough on Wii peripherals for the time being.
I don't see those games on the list. Do you have a point?
:x
Wii is a SD device (TV speaking) that is completely (and electronically) incapable of showing HD content. So, Youtube HD is non issue.
If you speak about high end sites entirely designed on Flash, flash shops etc. that won't be really needed on Wii. I can't picture Wii user profile wondering around with that stick and clicking things. They all have PC/Mac/Linux desktops and laptops anyway.
Think of Wii as a high end smart phone. Like Nokia E90 or N97, they come with Flash Lite 3 too. I think Nintendo thinks about Flash Lite 3 games, active content acting like an app (like Reuters for Symbian) etc.
Quoting a kid who got confused whether to buy Linux netbook or Win XP netbook: "Does this (linux) play Youtube too?". I know Flash developers hate it but it is what Wii owners will expect and cheer about.
Wii or any console is advertisers and content providers dream. No popular adblock hacks, no "flash video ripping", no attention issues. Why would they take measures to prevent Wii browser to embed the videos? IMHO they should start coding a special Hulu for Wii right now.
Your motionplus is defective or you're doing something wrong.
I can't see that being a major cost component. The accelerometer is in the Wii's controller, which alone retails for $49. This article on Tom's Hardware says that the Wii's manufacturing cost has actually gone down 45% since launch. http://www.tomsguide.com/us/nintendo-wii-price-drop-costs,news-3758.html
its quite nice [...] a 42incher.
That's what she said...
The potential benefits of this had me salivating. In four words, I can tell you why: Hulu on my HDTV.
So, my results?
- Well, for starters, Hulu doesn't work, as others here have mentioned.
- YouTube works, but was choppy, even though laptops that share the same wireless network don't share the same problem.
- Weather.com, on the radar map for my local area, actually ran out of memory while loading.
- The whole experience was kind of slow.
- Some sites (like YouTube) appear to render themselves specifically for the browser, while others (basically anything less popular) often looked just a little off.
- For the record, Slashdot looked pretty nice.
Overall, I doubt I'm going to be using it much.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
He says none of those games are emulated or remakes
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2248/Marvel-vs-Capcom-2/
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1964/1942-Joint-Strike/
He's full of it and you're off on your google fu
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
TBH while the WiiMote was initially charming, I miss the old controllers for most of the games we ended up buying. I've even noticed on some games on the PS3 that I tend to hold the controller more vertical than horizontal when I play, and that can result in unexpected game actions.
Thus is the price of progress.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Yeah I know it is packed in with Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods 10, but if you get Resort you pretty much have to buy another Motion Plus since its predominately a multi player game. No thanks Nintendo, I've already blown enough on Wii peripherals for the time being.
The overwhelming majority of Wii Sports Resort games are "pass the controller,"-bowling, archery, Frisbee golf etc. The only one you really need a second controller for is sword fighting.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
neither of those games was on the list in question.
No google required.
:x