The BBC and Nintendo UK today introduced a new version of the popular BBC iPlayer on Nintendo’s Wii.
First made available through the console’s Internet Channel in April 2008, BBC iPlayer will now be available as a dedicated Wii Channel to provide Wii users with a new, richer experience of the BBC’s TV and radio on-demand catch-up service. The new Wii Channel is expected to be available from 12.01am on Wednesday 18 November.
With the success of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, it really was only a matter of time before a gamut of that genre of gaming title hit the market, and now Disney Interactive Studios has announced ‘Ultimate Band’, a game which will feature music from the Plain White T’s.
Announced in February and developed by Fall Line Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ultimate Band takes players through the star system, from first getting together to becoming rock royalty. It ships in the US in the coming weeks.
The iPhone and iPod touch are emerging as serious competitors to Nintendo’s DS handheld and Sony’s PlayStation Portable, the Wall Street Journal claims in this video report.
Apple’s iPhone is becoming a major force in the mobile gaming market, said Apple product manager Greg Joswiak this week, and competitors – including Nintendo and Sony – are extremely concerned at the company’s looming threat to their market, he added.
Speaking to Stuff magazine, Joswiak predicted a huge range of gaming titles will be made available in the months to come. And with the iPhone (and iPod touch) offering better graphics, accelerometers and advanced processors, the Apple head honcho described the devices as “the future of gaming.
Nintendo showed-off its really rather entertaining Wii Music title at E3, a game featuing gesture-controlled instruments.
Gesture controls mean that when you play a saxophone you hold the controller in the same way as you do a normal sax, play guitar and hold the controls another way – and the whole experience is based on gesture, no button-pushing is required.
Wii Music will feature 50 different instruments, including drums, piano, guitar, violin and saxophone. There’s no metronome, neither, the experience is dependent on your ability, and while the game doesn’t score your musical efforts, it does allow you to record them and also to make music videos featuring up to four players at once.
Here’s a video showing a player using Wii Music at E3 last night.