Wii Channels

"Forget what you’ve been taught."

When developing interfaces, we've always been taught to keep things simple. For each interface screen, it's best to keep as little drop down menus and text boxes to keep things simple. The reason – end users can easily navigate through it. This makes the experience easy to learn and pain free. It also helps end users get accommodated to the system. On that end, Nintendo easily achieves. But simplicity isn't so much so a factor if the interface has irrelevant material. The content present in Wii Channels simply doesn't measure up to something like Xbox Live. Xbox Live made its interface simple as well, but was able to pack plenty of content in it.

Wii Channels is an interactive interface that utilizes the Wiimote as its control mechanism. With a simple swing of the Wiimote, you can choose from several options from the start up interface. You can surf through the Wii Shop Channel, which is by far the only worthwhile content. In here, you can by virtual console games. I've already picked up some old school goodies like Streets of Rage II and Bonanza Bros. Of course, there are other classics like Super Mario World and Zelda Link to the Past. Albeit, the VC games are direct ports, there are some worthwhile games that definitely can be picked up here.

Aside from that, all the other Channels are pretty useless. The Mii Channel allows you to create an avatar for yourself. Most of the created avatars can range from silly to somewhat normal. What I mean by that is the options available to the user. Lets just say that at the end of the day, your avatar isn't going to look to realistic. Of course, the positive is being able to use him/her for Wii Sports. The negative is the limitations for you to choose. So the next time you take a swing for a homerun, the character you are using isn't necessarily something you wanted in the first place.

Ah, of course there are the news and forecast channels, the two most useless features available on the Wii Channels. I bought the Wii to play video games; I don't need some filler content like News and Forecast Channels. If I wanted to know if it'll rain tomorrow I can fire up my browser on PC to search for it. I don't need to be interrupted from gaming pleasures with a useless feature like this.

In the end, Wii Channels offers one significant option. The ability to download and play games from older generation consoles. The other Channels are fairly useless and don't offer anything of note. This is especially true when options like the News Channel can be brought to you in superior form if you have a decent internet connection or basic cable. Last but not least, my biggest gripe is the inability to find the cursor at times to pick the options. I was hoping for a more convenient way of picking the different options on the startup interface, but the cursor gets lost a lot of times. Even when you wave the Wiimote back and forth, there is many times where the cursor still doesn't show up. Of course it eventually does, but this makes it less efficient for the end user. The Wii has a lot of potential for great games, but Wii Channels is one idea I wished hadn't passed through the QA stage. The only redeeming factor is the ability to download past games, but even then, Nintendo could have found a better way to present it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/07