Nintendo just brought WiiWare to the States, which means you can finally download original games to the console -- not just the classics available on the Virtual Console. While we're sure the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles entry and the charming LostWinds platformer will do quite well for themselves, we've been drooling over Defend you Castle, the Flash version of which has sucked more productive hours out of us than we'd care to admit -- unemployment here we come! Games range from 700 to 1,500 Wii points ($7 to $15) and are available now.

Remember Johnny Chung Lee's self-made VR head-tracking system cobbled together from a Wiimote and IR-equipped safety glasses? Good, because it's now one step closer to its destiny as the ultimate controller for a first person, Wii shooter. The video experience in a 3D wireframed world does look admittedly rough, but the idea is sound: step forward to move forward, to the sides to turn, and jump to (you guessed it) jump. Fortunately, with Nintendo's WiiWare service now live in Japan, maybe, just maybe someone will see the potential and commercialize this. Watch the Insight VR people hunt down the evil Marshies after the break.

[Via Make and Hack A Day]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nintendo plans to begin shipping its Wii Fit with weight and motion sensing Balance Board in May. Nintendo will also make good on a new online gaming game distribution service dubbed WiiWare. Right, that homebrew happy service which should result in vast quantities of cheap and innovative content previously only available in Johnny Chung Lee's imagination.

Update: Wii Fit on sale in Europe on April 25th, US on May 19th.

While it would have been virtually unthinkable just a few years ago, Nintendo is apparently now contemplating the possibility of a world without Game Boys. That's according to Nintendo marketing exec George Harrison, who recently told GameDaily.biz that we may have seen the last of the name, specifically saying that "it's hard to say in the future if we will ever bring back the Game Boy trademark." In other, less heartbreaking news, Nintendo's homebrew-happy WiiWare service appears to be progressing nicely, with Harrison also letting out word that "it may not take until 2008" for it to make its public debut. A firmer date will apparently depend on how quickly developers can get their act together.

[Via Joystiq]

In a move that's sure to delight the literally millions of Wii owners out there, Nintendo has announced that it will be offering a development platform which will allow almost anyone to create games that can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel. Like Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express before it, the so called WiiWare service gives at-home developers the tools to create content playable with those magical controllers, meaning that many of the strange and disturbing concept titles we've seen may actually come to fruition starting next year. Since no one wants to sit around coding for free (except for, you know, the entire open source community), Nintendo will allow devs to sell their wares to the public -- "reducing barriers to entry," as the economists say, while giving gamers a potentially endless source of cheap and innovative content. Just remember, Nintendo, when you gift the masses with the power to create, you're definitely not gonna like all of their creations.

[Via Joystiq]