News from LikSang

Nintendo held a special DS event in Tokyo yesterday where the new Wi-Fi adapter was unveiled, as well as a bunch of DS games to come out at a later point in time.

The company will launch the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in Japan this autumn with two compatible software titles (Animal Crossing: Wild World on November 23rd and Mario Kart DS on December 8th). The games will be free to play online, although Nintendo said it is up to third-party publishers to follow the same path or go for paid subscriptions schemes. The network allows you to use friends lists when searching for online opponents, and it will also give you the opportunity to play against "rivals" or random players (national or international). The marketing campaign for the service in Japan will be organized around the tagline of “Easy. Safe. Free.”

The games will be playable online using any Wi-Fi hot spot that you can catch with the NDS built-in receiver. Where the USB connector comes in handy is for those times when no Wi-Fi station is nearby: the USB connector plugs in your computer USB port and allows your wired internet connection to be broadcast wirelessly for your Nintendo DS.



Of other interest to DS owners is the ever-expanding list of games in development for the handheld. Though Nintendo showed several games that were previously announced, it did announce some new surprising ones including an exciting Mario Basketball 3 on 3 (not much more information and no release date as of yet).