It’s been pretty quiet here at the Frwee Wii Blog for the last few months. But I can’t resist quickly mentioning that Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner has been released on WiiWare. You can check out a demo on PC too. This is one of the strongest (pun slightly intended) additions the WiiWare offerings to date, especially for fans of the Homestar Runner and Strong Bad Flash cartoons, or those that enjoy point and click adventures like Sam and Max Hit the Road (the more recent incarnation of which has also been developed by Telltale Games).

Via The Tanooki, among others.

Some updates to the recently launched Japanese WiiWare site reveal that Nintendo hasn’t been lying about their estimated prices for WiiWare games – the first crop will cost between 500 and 1000 points, with only Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles – My Life as King breaking the 1000 Wii Point mark;  that will cost Japanese players 1500 points. That’s around ~$5, ~$10 or ~$15 per game (in USD, or AUD). Lets hope these attractive prices also apply to WiiWare when it launches in other parts of the world.

Scanning the list of release titles in Japan, I don’t see the WiiWare game I’m looking forward to the most – Pop (by Nnooo). Not to worry; the release titles outside of Japan are very likely to be different.

See the Gamasutra coverage for more details.

Update: Turns out this is not the Pop I thought it was. See the bottom of this post:

---

I just noticed this new soo-to-be-released Wii game on the BigW online store. It’s Pop!, a game I’ve written about previously being produced by Nnooo. Strange thing is, this game is supposed to be released via the WiiWare download service.I’m not quite sure what’s going on here … is Pop! going to be a dual retail disc / Wiiware release ? Is it not going to hit Wiiware after all, or is there going to be some kind of staggered release with an (almost) full price retail disc, followed by a cheaper Wiiware release ?

Alternatively, has BigW just got it plain wrong ?

Watch this space … according to BigW the release date is Feb 14th, 2008

---

Update:A quick email exchange with Nic from Nnooo has clarified things … the Pop! in the BigW catalog is a different game, with the same name (apart from the “!“. Nnooo’s Pop has no exclamation mark). It’s actually the (much less cool) game known as Balloon Pop in North America. An unscrupulous company in the UK decided to rename Balloon Pop simply Pop! in PAL regions, creating a name clash. If this is trying to capitalize on the (pre-)success of Nnooo’s Pop, before it’s even been released, I think it’s a real indication of the anticipation for this WiiWare title. The “real” Pop, developed by Nnooo, will ONLY be released on WiiWare, will certainly be cheaper and by all indications will be a better game than Balloon Pop.

An update for the Wii Shop became available today (at least in Australia), which allows Virtual Console games to be bought as gifts and sent to a friend via their Wii Number. Unfortunately you cannot send Virtual Console games you have already bought, you have to send them directly from the Shop at purchase time (there are a few I bought in the first few weeks I’d love to give away now …).

The new version of the Photo Channel, version 1.1, is also now available … this is the slightly controversial one that removes MP3 support and replaces it with AAC format support. Luckily, Nintendo has allowed users who bought a Wii with the original MP3-supporting Photo Channel (v1.0) to upgrade to v1.1, and later downgrade back to v1.0 if they want to regain MP3 support. Good move Nintendo, allowing reversible upgrades …. of course it would have been nicer if the new Photo Channel simply supported BOTH MP3 and AAC, but that would have probably required twice the licensing fees …

Just a quick note for Australian Wii owners: Take a look at the Wii Shop … there is something new available.

You guessed it … the Mii Contest (aka “Check Mii Out”) channel is available for free download. I’ve played with it for about 5 mins, and it was fun. Check it out for yourself.