Wii store now open for business

We realize there are still only a select few of you who actually have Wiis at this very moment (although those on the Eastern seaboard will have theirs in just a few short hours). But you might like to know that our Wii finally got its system update (huzzah) and is able to access the Wii store. The points are valued at a cent per, so 1,000 Wii points will set you back $10 US. Which is also what N64 games cost; SNES games will run $8, while NES and Genesis games run $5. Click on for a tour of the store!

Those familiar with our Wii interface walkthrough video will notice the Wii store channel's updated icon.

Select, then start.

The Wii loading screen.

Hurrah. The music that starts sounds strangely like The Girl from Ipanema.

We'll start at the Shopping Guide.

Looks like a help file index; we won't bore you.

So let's add some points.

We don't have a card, but here's where you'd do it.

Or you can buy with your credit card; we're not a fan of points, but at least it's easier than the skewed Microsoft points system where one point does not equal one cent.

Wii Ware in the upper right: we thought we could snag the internet channel (i.e. the Wii Opera browser) but sadly they're not launching it yet (nor any other channels).

So let's peep the Virtual Console.

Here's the recently added list. Don't worry, we'll spell 'em out for ya one by one.

This is the per-system download screen: NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis. Man, remember how competitive Sega and Nintendo were in the 80s when it was a two horse race? That was brutal. Guess we know who won (kind of).

N64 only has the $10 Mario 64 title. Glad the Wii's launching with at least one Mario game.

SNES only had two titles, both of which are old faves. SimCity, and F-Zero.

NES titles include Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Pinball, Soccer, Solomon's Key, Legend of Zelda, Wario's Woods.

And Genesis titles are Sonic The Hedgehog, and the inimitable and forever-classic Altered Beast -- a wise $8 investment.

Sorry, we haven't bought anything yet. So let's do that now.

Aight, select your card. Sorry AmEx and Discover card users, you're boned!

Enter that card info.

Sigh. Now enter your damned billing info.

Ha! Taxes after all. Is that 8.4% for the state of Washington?

Authorizing. Please don't reject... please don't reject...

Huzzah!

There's our receipt. We're so gonna write this off.

What to buy... what to buy. F-Zero sounds good.

Yep, looks like a winner. Wait, what about N64? We wanna see how those graphics are handled.

Ok, let's do this thing.

Damn, you need the classic controller (which we don't have handy). Ah well, all the way back to classic Nintendo for us.

Yeah, hows about that Legend of Zelda, the orig.

Yep, there it is.

Pre-download download.

Nice little Mario animation going on there. We're kinda curious how many more download animations there are.

Great, Zelda downloaded!

Ok, so we've got it downloaded.

Ah, so that's where these games go! No wonder they gave us so many channels.

Screw Twilight Princes, let's do it up old.

Can you hear the music yet?

Engadget, man. Old school.

The settings menu, where you can link your nintendo.com account or remove the Wii shop channel.

Back in the main menu we decided to try out the other channels -- the Forecast channel (not to be confused with the Weather Channel) and news channel are both not yet functional. Bummer.

Trying to run them takes you to the Wii update utility, which, of course, isn't gonna change anything.

Kind of a bummer to see some of those titles as pricey as they are, if you ask us. $5 for a NES game -- which is about $5 more than you'd pay for a ROM and about $4.50 more than you'd pay at a thrift store -- isn't insane, but man, it's back catalogue! It's not like they're depriving themselves of sales here.