WiiWare launches in Australia and Europe

Today marks a momentous occasion on Wii as WiiWare storms onto the console in Australia and Europe. Get set to expect the unexpected as a raft of original, fresh and thrilling games from first and third party developers become available to download directly onto your Wii, through the Wii Shop Channel.

Kicking off WiiWare’s launch in style, six superb new titles from developers across Europe and the world are available to download now! Why not treat yourself to the following:

Dr. Mario & Germ Buster from Nintendo
FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King from SQUARE ENIX
LostWinds from Frontier
Star Soldier R from HUDSON SOFT
Toki Tori from Two Tribes B.V.

NiGHTS Journey of Dreams Uses Weather Channel

The upcoming title 'NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams for Nintendo Wii will use the Wii Weather Channel in-game. This feature enables the game’s “My Dream” area, a customizable sand-box environment that allows gamers to capture, raise, and even combine the inhabitants (A-Life) from the world of Nightopia, to generate real-time weather effects specific to the territory players previously registered with on the Wii (so for those of us on the Gold Coast, it'll sunny most of the time, for those of you in the UK.. not so much lol).

The game will also feature an online-enabled two-player mode allowing gamers to race and battle against one another via Wi-Fi connection at launch on December 18, 2007. The game will feature two young characters Helen and Will who fall asleep and meet NiGHTS, the familiar jester character who leads them on an adventure.

Wii Loved Space Channel 5

Remember 'Space Channel 5' on the Sega Dreamcast, what a superb game. There were mad characters, camp dancing and weird aliens. Don't get excited, we don't have an exclusive that it's definitely coming to the Nintendo Wii, but since Thumb Bandits podcast host Gadget Girl has been right about both Samba De Amigo and Sega Bass Fishing heading to the Nintendo Wii, we're thinking maybe she was right about Space Channel 5 as well.

Ok we're thinking and hoping, REALLY hoping she's right, because this game would be awesome on the Wii. If it does hit the Wii at some point, we hope it uses the Wiimote as a sort of dancing baton. No point in playing a dancing game, unless it has the ability to make you look like an absolute ass in front of your friends.

More Female Gamers Than Male for Wii & DS

According to notes from the Nintendo Conference a few days ago "For each household, the DS has 3.0 users, the Wii has 3.5 users. DS has a 53% female user base. Wii has a 51% female user base." Yes ladies, we're playing it big, at least on Nintendo, which poses a slight problem really, it harkens back to the yawny view that those are the only sorts of games we play--Nintendo, pretty, bright, cute and 'fun'.

Not to say it isn't great news, too long have female gamers been on the periphery. With this news, perhaps developers and publishers will take the female market more seriously than they have been. We've long known the surveys have come back with a 50 / 50 split over most gaming types, though usually it does lean slightly in favor of the male gamer, which makes this Nintendo news so amusing. Are the gaming tides a changing? Is the female gamer on the rise? And if so, where the hell is MS and Sony's marketing to that fact. Look out boys, we're a comin.