14 Jan 2008

Get The Wii Internet Channel For Free

As part of their whole stuff-up-anything-online/multiplayer strategy, Nintendo is charging for the Wii’s surprisingly nifty Opera-based web browser. It’s only 500 points (around £3.75), but with a little effort you can avoid paying anything (here in Europe, anyway).

In your Wii’s packaging you should’ve had a couple of registration cards, one for the Wii itself and another for Wii Sports. For once, these cards aren’t totally worthless; if you sign up with Club Nintendo and register the product codes you’ll get 2000 Stars, which can now be swapped for 500 Wii Points if you don’t fancy getting a Club Nintendo baseball cap or key ring.

The only snag is that Nintendo either has an inept IT department, or is deliberately trying to prevent people from swapping, as there’s a shortage of those purely virtual Wii Points Cards and they also limit you to one per day. I had to nab five separate 100-point cards over a week or so, and have never seen any of the larger cards in stock.

Anyway, I now have a perfect excuse to potter about on the console during the day: “Er, I’m testing some web sites for browser compatibility…”