It's offical: Wii Online Games to Require Individual Friend Codes...

[Hi There, Am Pam]

Well, Nintendo blew it on this one. In order to play online against friends, you both have to enter each other's Wii codes (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/8-0&fp=45fbef5fe6f06d69&ei=8Cj7Raf1J7n6sAHv4b2lCw&url=http%3A//www.nintendorevolution.ca/03162007/14/confirmed_nintendo_wii_friend_lists_are_game_specific&cid=0), for each game that you want that functionality.

I still don't understand what Nintendo was thinking on that one. On the plus side, Nintendo's online gaming is free... but still, why did Nintendo stick with this considering how hated the DS codes were? Especially since you add your friends in the address book anyway.

I just don't see the rational to this at all.

But just to completely avoid bad news, Gamespy (http://www.nintendorevolution.ca/03142007/08/nintendo_wii_online_is_much_more_impressive_now) is going to officially be running many of the online features, with stuff like matchmaking capabilities (I'm guessing this is pitting players of equal skill against each other?), rosters, etc... So it's not all bad, but it still makes little sense that it will be forced to enter your friends in for each title.

[Static Split Screen]

But gamespy sucks.

[Hi There, Am Pam]

I don't really have much experience with Game Spy, except for some of their special articles which I thought were well written.

[vaya con dios]

I know it might seem frustrating, but, for some reason I don't find it that terrible. Then again, this is coming from someone who doesn't mind re-entering their whole SIM contacts list on each phone he gets, rather than getting it transferred on the spot via cable at the phone provider.

[Hi There, Am Pam]

Yeah, in the bigger picture (well, the bigger video game related picture), it's not a big deal. It's just a bit of a nuisance. As long as the online multiplayer itself is done well, it probably won't matter. It just doesn't make sense why Nintendo would chose to do this. The only reason I can think of, is that it's less maintenance. Still, I could imagine that if you have a huge amount of Wii friends, asking them to enter your number in for each game would be a big pain.

[vaya con dios]

let's look at it from that angle. xbox360 still hasn't updated their back catalogue to play on the system yet (it's been 1.5 years). so...codes. fine by me. plus, the wii being a hard-drive based system, it's a matter of time before someone creates a shortcut to fill the codes in automatically.