In an interview conducted by French publication Gamers.fr, Producer for Mario Strikers Charged Justin Dowdeswell stated that a player's Mii(s) will contain a Mii code that will be used across all Wii online games.
According to Dowdeswell, "Each Mii generates a Mii code that remains constant. This code will be used for all online titles in the future." The comment suggests that rather than deal with game-specific friend codes with individual friends list, players will choose a Mii to act as their online identity.
Under this notion, different members of a household with their own Miis could maintain individual friends lists, which would be centralized across all online games. Because each Wii acts as a miniature server where Miis are stored, the connection established would be peer-to-peer (P2P). Nintendo would only be responsible for match-making.
Dowdeswell assured that the team achieved its goals with the online infastructure in Charged. "We have some guys who worked on Xbox Live, and we've worked closely with Nintendo on this," he said. "We haven't compromised at all, and the result is exactly what we had hoped."
When asked how players would actually get online, Dowdeswell said, "In the menu, there's a special [Nintendo] WFC icon. You can see a random list of players from your continent, or play with your friends. Players will be ranked by stars, and the max number of players is four. Only two Wiis can be connected... so to play with four you need two people on each Wii." The regions list for Charged consists of North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.
Next Level Games also implemented a "Striker of the Day" feature in Charged. "The player with the most victories that day will have the honor of having [his or her] Mii on the front page of the online mode the next day," Dosdeswell mentioned. "Each player connected to the NWFC will see the name of this player. What's more, regional rankings will be periodically reset to give everybody a chance to try to get to the top of the charts."
Mario Strikers Charged, which released in Europe on May 25, is expected to arrive in North America on July 30. Although Charged is the first online Wii title from Nintendo in Europe, it will be the third in Japan and the United States, after Pokemon Battle Revolution and Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree.
The full Gamers.fr interview can be found here.
Will this be the final piece of the online puzzle? The Wiire will be calling every Nintendo representative and their mothers for answers. |
