I haven't posted any news in a while, so here's something that is sorta important to gaming fans all over the place. WiiWare, the Nintendo equivalent of Xbox Live Arcade launched in Japan this week. So basically Japanese Wii owners can now purchase cheap, small (usually, but not always) games through their Wiis by using Wii Points.

I didn't realize that the new Crystal Chronicles game for the Wii is actually a WiiWare title. It looks quite impressive, but I'm wondering how a Wii user is expected to store these games when the Wii has no significant internal storage.

One very positive aspect of this service is that it will reduce the amount of crummy games being released in disc format taking up all the Wii shelf space. The negative of this being that the good Wii games can hardly fill a shelf on their own...

Ah well, for more information, and a list of upcoming games for this service (we'll have it in two months) click here.

"Hey, you! If you meet a beautiful, seductive woman who's looking for me, tell her 'hi.' Anyway, I don't think a woman like that would be looking for me." -Guy in Fourside Hotel

The Wii has an SD card slot, right? I'm pretty sure that's where they'll expect us to put the games.

Awaken, my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright. Know that I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the swarm, and that you have been created to serve me.

That's the idea, but as far as I know games can't be launched from the SD card, so you'll have to move them into the Wii Channels screen to play them, and then back onto the SD card to archive them.

So if developers stick to the 40 megabyte recommended file size (which is kinda small, even for simple games these days) we'll be able to store lots of games, it's just gonna be a bit of a hassle to play some of them.

Also Nintendo has recommended that the games be compressed when not being played, but that's just going to increase load times.

"Hey, you! If you meet a beautiful, seductive woman who's looking for me, tell her 'hi.' Anyway, I don't think a woman like that would be looking for me." -Guy in Fourside Hotel