When Nintendo unveiled the Wii Channel component of the Wii, it was yet another enigmatic piece of the overall puzzle, in my opinion. Price and date had been set, and yet we had this new online feature that would allow us to see the weather, use a comment board, and create Mii likenesses of ourselves for play in Wii Sports, et al. But there is still much to be learned about this feature, and I think the potential for it in the long run is pretty incredible.
In that regard, here’s a listing of a few of the trademarked Wii Channel names and a brief description of what each may become. The rest can be found at Play-Nintendo in the link below. These have been reported off an on since June, but now they’re all in one place.
”¢WiiCulture – Put into a channel, the possibilities for this one could be fairly broad. The one that seems most likely is that it could be a channel dedicated to Wii’s online community. It could be where you go to see your online profile, set up games with friends, see rankings, set up tournaments, and even a place you could win points for said tournaments. Of course, it could be a channel dedicated to something else like a news service about Wii and its games, an online message board service, or even the hottest Wii fashions, but we’re leaning toward this being the channel for Wii’s online gaming.
”¢!!M – Flip the name ‘Wii’ 180 degrees and this is what you get. With the fact that a chat service on Wii has been confirmed as something Nintendo is looking into implementing, !!M could be a clever manipulation of the Wii name to mimic the popular acronym IM (Instant Messenger). With Mii being a channel for caricatures, we feel that there’s a good chance an !!M Channel for chatting will be on the channel list in the future.
”¢WiiHealth – An exercise game for Wii was rumored to be in development, leaving this to possibly be a channel attached to various exercise games. It could keep track of your progress in them, and allow you to quickly share that with others. If that’s not the case, this could be a channel dedicated to health content. Read the latest workout techniques, read stories of how others lost weight/got in great shape, and even get healthy recipes.
”¢WiiSenior – Similar to WiiKids, this channel would cater to the crowd of senior Wii owners. Learn about games like Big Brain Academy Wii, recommendations for staying healthy, getaway locations for retirees, and much more.
Wii Senior?! Sign me up!