Nintendo Announces More Wii Storage, New Zelda and More

Games
Nintendo Announces More Wii Storage, New Zelda and More
By Eli Green
March 27, 2009 - 15:00

Just a few days before the launch of the Nintendo DSi, Nintendo President Saturo Iwata announced a number of updates for Nintendo products, as well as some details on a new Zelda game set to release for the company's handhelds.

First off, this week's Wii update enables Wii users to now download Channels, Virtual Console games and WiiWare to High Capacity SD Cards, in addition to regular SD cards, thus allowing them to free up a lot of space on their Wii's internal memory. Players who save Channels, Virtual Console games or WiiWare to an SD Card will also be able to select and launch them from a new SD Menu icon in the Wii Menu (it's a tiny SD card shaped icon next to the Wii settings menu button). The only caveat is that you will need to have an equivalent amount of free blocks available on you Wii for them to run, so if the internal memory was full to begin with you'll still need to transfer some unused files over to the SD card before transferring the file you want to use to the internal memory.

The Nintendo DSi is set to hit the shelves of North American retailers one week from Sunday. With that release, Nintendo will be promoting the DSi and its WiiWare equivalent, DsiWare, by giving away 1,000 DSi Points (the equivalent of $10 USD) to every consumer who buys it and connects to the DSi Shop in the first six months after launch (you've got to access the DSi shop no later than October 5^th ). The Points can be redeemed at any time as long as the DSi is connected to the Internet. DsiWare games will be available at different pricer ranges, anywhere from free to over 800 DSi Points a piece, with the levels in between being 200 Points, 500 Points and 800 Points. Players can purchase DSi Points through the DSi Shop using a credit card, or by purchasing a Nintendo Points Card in stores and then redeem those points in the DSi Shop. Retailers will begin selling Nintendo Points Cards on April 5^th with the launch of the DSi. We still think they would do far better with a full profile system across all their platforms, but what can you do?

Finally, aside from announcing the shipment of the 50 millionth Wii unit, Iwata announced a new Legend of Zelda today that will utilize the same kind of touch control Phantom Hourglass did. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is an all new adventure in which players will travel around the game's world with a steam locomotive, hence Spirit Tracks , and switch between Phantom and Link to explore new dungeons and solve fresh puzzles with new items. The game is set to release some time later this year.