Japanese Wii Details

Wii

September 14, 2006, 12:44 am EDT
Total comments: 33

BIG Update: More on Virtual Console, Wii menu and channels revealed, and a video trailer featuring a ton of new Wii games! Updated again with info on Photo Viewer and links to more menu video!

BIG Update: Nintendo has launched the Official Wii website, containing different regions. Only the Japan area is currently open, but that, combined with the Nintendo Japan Wii hardware page has revealed a ridiculous amount of information. We will do our best to summarize the major stuff here, with links to relevant pages and video.

More details on Virtual Console

For starters, Nintendo has a lineup of 24 publishers currently listed as supporting Virtual Console in Japan. (More details on pricing and availablity of games are at the bottom of this news story.) More importantly, the page on Nintendo's site confirms another game system has been added to the lineup: The MSX. Those unfamilar with the device (it wasn't really a standard console) can get schooled up about it at Wikipedia, but the important thing to know of it is franchises like Metal Gear, Dragon Quest, Puyo Puyo and others got their start on it. It would seem obvious that some games from those series would eventually be available on VC.

Wii Menu and Channels Revealed

The only major things up on Wii.com at the moment are videos and explanations (in Japanese) of the menu system, and the things that will be included in it. They are all controlled by pointing and clicking with the remote, and include:

- Mii Channel: The area where you can create your customizable avatar. It's not just limited to the face; body shape, hair, clothes can be changed along with every concieveable facial feature you can think of. There's more to it that just the face-making, though, as there was a part of the video where a vast field of people were lined up, and able to be selected for some purpose. The best way to understand it is to see the video for yourself...and even then, you might not get it. [Update] More videos of Mii can be seen here and here.

- News Channel and Weather Forecasting: Self explanatory, but any console connected to the Internet can see the latest news headlines and get weather information via the Wii menu. See the videos of those in action, too. [Update] More video of the weather feature can be seen on this page.

- Wii Photo Viewer [Updated!]: Videos from the presentation show off the very impressive functionality of the photo viewer. Pictures stored on SD cards can be viewed, rotated, and put into a slide show. Even more impressive than that is the Wii can edit those photos using the Wii remote as the main tool (think Photoshop). Even beyond that, the photos can be put together to form a sort of video montage. To cap it all off, these creations can apparently be shared online via WiiConnect24. Stunning. Again, videos of it in action can be had at the link heading this paragraph.

- Opera Browser: Video of it in action can be seen here. Google and Google Maps were used to demo the browsing capabilities of Wii.

Wii Games Trailer

This is the big one. Pictures speak louder than words, so just watch the video. It contains games that have not been previously announced, and new footage for games already known. The partial list of featured games include:

-WiiSports Boxing

-Deep Sea Diving

-Fire Emblem

-Trauma Center Second Opinion

-Wing Island

-Pokemon Battle Revolution

-Harvest Moon

-The Dog Island

-Resident Evil - Mansion from original RE

-New footage for Twilight Princess

Almost all of the information coming out of the Japan Wii reveal is on Nintendo's website. Here is the link to that; it's all in Japanese text, but many pages have video clips of more things not mentioned here, such as a calendar function, and confirmation of R-Type as a Virtual Console game, among other things.

Remember, all of the information in this article contains information for the Japanese launch of the Wii. Be advised details may be slightly different for the American and International versions of the presentation. For the most part, though, what Japan is getting is pretty much the same as what everyone else will get.

Come back to PGC later today for more details on Wii around the world.

Big Update by Steven Rodriguez.

UPDATE: NCL's site has updated with details on the contents of the box when you purchase:

*Main body of Wii ×1

*Wii remote control With strap ×1

*Nunchakus controller ×1

*AC adaptor only for Wii ×1

*AV cable only for Wii ×1

*Stand only for main body of Wii ×1

*Supplementary plate only for main body of Wii ×1

*Sensor bar only for Wii ×1

*Sensor bar stand ×1

*Batteries ×2

It appears that Wii Sports will be sold separately for 4800 yen.

Nintendo expects sixteen total games to be available on launch day, including Zelda for 6800 yen.

Also, prices for extra controllers were announced at:

Remote - 3800 yen

Nunchaku - 1800 yen

Classic Controller - 1800 yen

Original Story

Original Link: http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/

With the Japanese Wii Preview underway, Famitsu and others are reporting details on the fly.

In Japan, Wii will release at 25,000 yen on December 2nd.

Prices for Virtual Console games are as follows:

Famicom -500 yen

Super Famicom - 800 yen

N64 - 1000 yen

Nintendo plans to release thirty Virtual Console titles of their own, with another thirty TurboGrafx and Genesis games coming as well, making for a total of sixty titles. After that, Nintendo anticipates adding ten titles to the service each month. Titles can be purchased either via credit card or with a pre-paid Wii card.

Talkback

ArtimusSeptember 13, 2006

That converts to $212USD. If it goes for $250 in the US then Nintendo deserves to lose. Bleeding the consumer with that price would be idiotic.

And let me be the first to say: they lied about the release date. Plain and simple.

We should've known they'd screw up eventually. Hopefully it's not too big of a one.

NWR_LindyJon Lindemann, Associate EditorSeptember 13, 2006

Hmmm, makes me wonder if the $250 report was a misquote. With $212 USD as the price in Japan, $199.99 seems far more reasonable for the US.

Remember, NOA themselves haven't announced anything yet.

JensenSeptember 13, 2006

they lied about the release date? they said "before thanksgiving", which is true in the US, and they said near simultaneous launch. 2 weeks is pretty close....

mantidorSeptember 13, 2006

ouch, one controller.

Then again this is Japan, lets hope the launch in this part of the pacific comes with two controllers, it would make sense if you compare both prices directly.

ArtimusSeptember 13, 2006

Whoa, the Nunchuck and Wiimote are SEPARATE? $60 for the duo?! God, they're insane. What happened to affordability?

The ONLY good price so far is the Classic Controller at $20. And god knows it'll probably be $40 here at this rate.

joedickSeptember 13, 2006

The classic contrller seems to be reasonably priced.

Personally, I doubt there will be a second controller packed in the US. Let's hope I'm wrong!

Moto YugotaSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Silks
Hmmm, makes me wonder if the $250 report was a misquote. With $212 USD as the price in Japan, $199.99 seems far more reasonable for the US.

Remember, NOA themselves haven't announced anything yet.

Quote
it would make sense if you compare both prices directly.

Um, the $250 number was never an actual price. What was said is that it would be no more than $250. $212 < $250, so this means absolutely nothing to the US launch, regardless of what it comes packed with (which will probably be no different than what's packed with the Japanese system). Where did you people get the idea that $250 was the reported price? Certainly not here or any other video game site that I've seen. They all reported accurately what I just stated above.

ArtimusSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Moto Yugota
Quote
Originally posted by: Silks
Hmmm, makes me wonder if the $250 report was a misquote. With $212 USD as the price in Japan, $199.99 seems far more reasonable for the US.

Remember, NOA themselves haven't announced anything yet.

Quote
it would make sense if you compare both prices directly.

Um, the $250 number was never an actual price. What was said is that it would be no more than $250. $212 < $250, so this means absolutely nothing to the US launch, regardless of what it comes packed with (which will probably be no different than what's packed with the Japanese system). Where did you people get the idea that $250 was the reported price? Certainly not here or any other video game site that I've seen. They all reported accurately what I just stated above.

LOL

The same sites you go to, only we visited them today. You must not have.

SvevanEvan Burchfield, Staff AlumnusSeptember 13, 2006

$250 as posted by an NYT article.

The Japanese bundle is DIFFERENT than the US bundle, as we shall see in just a few hours. The Japanese bundle has no Wii Sports, and I'm holding out for an extra controller in the US bundle. So no, Nintendo is not dirty or rotten or evil. Just wait a few hours.

Moto YugotaSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Artimus
That converts to $212USD. If it goes for $250 in the US then Nintendo deserves to lose. Bleeding the consumer with that price would be idiotic.

And let me be the first to say: they lied about the release date. Plain and simple.

We should've known they'd screw up eventually. Hopefully it's not too big of a one.

How can the release date be a lie when they never confirmed a release date to begin with? Plus, this is the Japanese release date, not the NA release date, so anything that HAS been said about the NA release can't be proven true or false with this information at all. All you're doing here is speculating with absolutely no reliable basis in fact to back you up.

ArtimusSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Moto Yugota
Quote
Originally posted by: Artimus
That converts to $212USD. If it goes for $250 in the US then Nintendo deserves to lose. Bleeding the consumer with that price would be idiotic.

And let me be the first to say: they lied about the release date. Plain and simple.

We should've known they'd screw up eventually. Hopefully it's not too big of a one.

How can the release date be a lie when they never confirmed a release date to begin with? Plus, this is the Japanese release date, not the NA release date, so anything that HAS been said about the NA release can't be proven true or false with this information at all. All you're doing here is speculating with absolutely no reliable basis in fact to back you up.

You need to step out of last week and get with the picture, sister.

They said Q4 before Thanksgiving and 'the competition'.

StrellSeptember 13, 2006

You know.

If you had asked me a few days ago..."Jolly Strell, how could Nintendo postively ruin the hype trainmobile they are on, and utterly destroy their launch?"

I probably would have said everything, as well as "include some scorpions in the box."

No Wii sports, plus it is WAY less cool than it was hyped to be.
No second controller.
HUGE prices on VC and extra controllers.
50-60 dollars for games despite lower dev costs.
No new IPs announced.
No new secrets on the Wiimote.
Big name games being delayed left and right.
$250 price tag.
Launching after PS3.
No new IPs.
No indie stuff (which I wasn't counting on anyway).
No neat stuff with the VC (alterations, etc).

I mean, what the hell else could you possibly screw up there?

Someone at another forum said "well it's obvious why Nintendo has been so quiet - they didn't want to tell us what the score was."

Wow.

I had better hear more agreeable sh*t tomorrow.

NWR_LindyJon Lindemann, Associate EditorSeptember 13, 2006

Maybe the $250 report came from right here. However, the Seattle newspaper story was taken down and I can't see anything on the NY Times site regarding Wii.

Maybe it was a ruse by Nintendo to scare people, only to "surprise" them with the real, cheaper price.

Moto YugotaSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Artimus
Quote
Originally posted by: Moto Yugota
Quote
Originally posted by: Silks
Hmmm, makes me wonder if the $250 report was a misquote. With $212 USD as the price in Japan, $199.99 seems far more reasonable for the US.

Remember, NOA themselves haven't announced anything yet.

Quote
it would make sense if you compare both prices directly.

Um, the $250 number was never an actual price. What was said is that it would be no more than $250. $212 < $250, so this means absolutely nothing to the US launch, regardless of what it comes packed with (which will probably be no different than what's packed with the Japanese system). Where did you people get the idea that $250 was the reported price? Certainly not here or any other video game site that I've seen. They all reported accurately what I just stated above.

LOL

The same sites you go to, only we visited them today. You must not have.

Reporting on speculation articles from two newspapers that rarely have anything to do with video games at all, including one that is rarely accurate in it's speculations, is hardly worth even actually mentioning. The NYT is hardly reputable for even mainstream information, why would their video game information be any more reliable?

Moto YugotaSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Silks
Maybe the $250 report came from right here. However, the Seattle newspaper story was taken down and I can't see anything on the NY Times site regarding Wii.

Maybe it was a ruse by Nintendo to scare people, only to "surprise" them with the real, cheaper price.

Seriously, you people put way too much faith in newspaper articles put up on websites. Even if they publish it in paper format, newspapers are hardly the accurate fact-gatherers that they used to be.

Moto YugotaSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Silks
Maybe the $250 report came from right here. However, the Seattle newspaper story was taken down and I can't see anything on the NY Times site regarding Wii.

Maybe it was a ruse by Nintendo to scare people, only to "surprise" them with the real, cheaper price.

Okay, just read that article from this site. Now I find everyone's response even more ridiculous. One newspaper quoting another newspaper??? And you can't find the original source anywhere??? How can you honestly even BEGIN to consider that a reliable source?

mantidorSeptember 13, 2006

many of us did saw the original source before it was pulled off, and these are newspapers that are serious about reporting stuff, they are not joystiq.

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusSeptember 13, 2006

Considering what the article had right (that nobody knew about at the time), I'd say they're probably on target.

BigJimSeptember 13, 2006

Last I checked the PI story was back up, too.

No reason not to believe it. Other than chances of false hope.

IGN has already said NYT broke an embargo. Which means they also knew before NYT announced it themselves.

JensenSeptember 13, 2006

wii.com is up.... the Wii interface is quite rad, I love the avatar/friends/Mii section

SvevanEvan Burchfield, Staff AlumnusSeptember 13, 2006

And you don't trust the NYT, which is trusted and quoted by nearly every major media outlet in the world? And, by the way, newspapers run stories from other newspapers all the time. Get real.

KDR_11kSeptember 13, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Artimus
Whoa, the Nunchuck and Wiimote are SEPARATE? $60 for the duo?! God, they're insane. What happened to affordability?

The ONLY good price so far is the Classic Controller at $20. And god knows it'll probably be $40 here at this rate.

I don't know where you're getting those exchange rates from but I'm guessing it's depicted on Goatse. Google: 3800 JPY + 1800 JPY in $ = 47$, 1800 JPY in $ = 15$

WuTangTurtleSeptember 13, 2006

I'm perfectly fine with both the date and price, and wii sports included (boxing FTW!) i don't see the 360 or PS3 doing anything even compareable so nobody should be complaining. Especially when u factor in the items you need to buy for both the 360 and PS3 to use it to its fullest those price gaps further make Nintendo the most affordable by far.

I mean c'mon Zelda is a launch title and Mario and Super Smash Bros will follow up to ensure there isn't a dryspell, personally I see the launch doing extremely well. I'm telling ya PS3's will sell out their 2 million systems worldwide but by then Nintendo will have double that. Forecast is looking very well, very well indeed.

NephilimSeptember 14, 2006

NINTENDOGS WIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyone noticed that nunchuck was wireless during the baseball promo?
link was evil when he pulled the mastersword out too... weird and awsome!
raganok style chat room? check out at the end of the end of the male avatar vid....looks great

CalibanSeptember 14, 2006

I don't know why people are complaining about the controllers prices, they have new tech packaged in such little volume, I think it's reasonable but I still want to see what the american prices will be.

Now ask yourselves this question, how much is Sony charging for one of their sparkling innovations (the controller)?

From what I've seen, everything looks fine to me, the UI looks great, the little channels look like something very accesible and non-gamer/gamer friendly, everything is looking good and just waiting for Reggie's speach.

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusSeptember 14, 2006

Deadly D, that's not Nintendogs, but The Dog Island, a third party game (and rather strange looking). The nunchuck also is not wireless, even if you think you spotted one in the video. The reason that the nunchuck and classic controller are cheaper is because they use the remote's transmitter.

edgeblade69September 14, 2006

Did I see a Gold Golem in that video? It could be from Zelda but it looked waaaaaayyyy too DW/DQ-esque. Is this DQ Monsters, some other DQ title, or...?

KDR_11kSeptember 14, 2006

I just converted 250$ to €, turns out it's around 200€ so now you're paying what we did for the GC.

Ian SaneSeptember 14, 2006

I actually forgot all about this conference thing after all this time of us getting excited about it. Lots of information to comment on.

I like how Nintendo is actually giving us some real footage and some screens (though not many). Is it just me or does the footage look better than at E3? Some of these games look really nice. Deep sea diving looks cool. MSX support for the VC is also nice though I wonder if they'll translate those games to English.

I don't like the pricing. $250 ain't cheap. That's more than the Cube cost and like others have mentioned it's not much cheaper than the Xbox 360 Core system. The Wii has inferior graphics and according to IGN it doesn't have a DVD player either now. The Cube's price didn't mean squat because it was not much cheaper and since it was missing the DVD support everyone just assumed that you were getting what you paid for. It's not a cheap console if it's "worse" than the competition. Assuming that $250 price is accurate Nintendo has no real price advantage at all against the Xbox 360. They do however still have an advantage over the PS3 which gives them a big advantage in Japan.

If the controller is $60 it's too expensive and multiplayer games are going to become scarce because no one is going to pay more than a GAME for a controller. The classic controller is priced okay and if this motion control stuff flops that's going to become the standard controller anyway. I think the high price is going to limit the appeal of the controller even if they really make some awesome games for it. Plus the higher price raises the expectations. Motion control BETTER be f*cking awesome if we're going to pay so much for it.

I like how Nintendo has some extra features like News reporting and stuff. That's pretty cool and very much what I wouldn't expect from them, which is good. The VC games are priced okay for N64 and some SNES and Genesis titles but too high in general if it's $5 to $10. Nintendo needs to realize the competition here is PIRACY which is REALLY easy for 2D consoles. Why pay $5 for Super Mario Bros when I can get the NES cartridge for 99 cents at the flea market and FREE online? If I'm going to pay that kind of money I'll seek out the real cartridges and at least get a collectable out of it.

I can see why Nintendo moved TP to the launch because the other three first party launch titles look like they'll get boring in a couple hours. Fine for me since I'll just get the Cube version of Zelda and save money. Launch will sell out anyway and they do have some really sweet games in the works for later. They just better get those games out without a huge drought. But then it might not matter because the DS American launch is the worst launch of all time and it didn't seem to matter. Nothing really matters when the Playstation 3 is $600.

The date is fine. All I cared about is getting it out for Christmas 2006 which they will. At this point I don't see how you could have realistically expected anything earlier. If WiiSports is included that's pretty nice but $250 is still too high. I'd rather they ditch the pack-in and sell for $200. At $250 it seems more like a forced bundle than a free pack-in.

I think all this would be a lot better if the prices were all lower. Nintendo made this big deal about lower costs and in the end we don't save anything (but I'm sure they do). We've got a $250 Cube with $60 controllers (though $50 games is good). Nintendo needs to stop penny-pinching. Thank God Sony is f*cking up worse and MS is screwed in Japan.

ArtimusSeptember 14, 2006

Hahaha, Canadian price is 279.99 which is $20 cheaper than the Cube at launch. That makes me feel a little better.

wanderingSeptember 14, 2006

The graphics are looking better and better. That lava/fire whatever in Mario: wow.

Oh, and what was that flying thing in Zelda?

edit:

Quote
We've got a $250 Cube

Madden Wii, Madden cube

zakkielSeptember 14, 2006

Quote
No Wii sports, plus it is WAY less cool than it was hyped to be.

If by "no Wii sports" you mean "Wii sports will come with the hardware." And I don't know what hype you were reading. No one with any common sense expected this to be anything other than it is: an assembly of cheap minigames designed to show off the controller in a nongamer-friendly way.

ArbokSeptember 14, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: zakkiel
If by "no Wii sports" you mean "Wii sports will come with the hardware."

Well, since this is for details on the Japanese Wii release, one would assume that they were talking about the console in that region, which won't launch with Wii Sports as it is in America.

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