When the DS was announced to have a dedicated online system, the crowds all simultaneously yelled ‘Hooray!’ as Nintendo were finally going to be taking games over the internet seriously. After the pioneering of the sector through Xbox Live, I’m almost certain Nintendo felt at least a little bit annoyed as every console since the Super Nintendo has had some sort of online function to it (albeit barely popularized).

The DS ‘WiFi Connection’ system came along and people couldn’t believe what they had. A way to finally play Mario Kart and Metroid Prime online with other living beings! There were of course some downfalls to this as gamers started to realize the downfalls of the ‘friend code’ system. Nintendo’s opinion was that to have a large and organized online system it needed to be as safe as possible to prevent anything negative that could happen to them; either through the press or in court. The friend code system prevents any damage done to a player through the online system by preventing personal contact with anyone unless you have them registered as a friend. This meant that all you could really use the online for was playing games with strangers and friends but not really meeting new people and chatting which is one of the best features of the competitors’ online services. It also meant that every game has its own online code so whenever you want to play a friend at a online game you had to keep a large list of codes handy for every game - Frustrating!

With the release of the next Nintendo home console, the Wii, people dreamt that they would also keep the high quality of the online service on the DS but also give it the things they wanted such as individual ID’s so their friends would always have them down on the list and a way to communicate with people randomly. When the first online title for the Wii was released over in Japan at launch, Pokemon Battle Revolution it was discovered that it had its own unique friend code system, just like it’s DS brethren. The fans were gutted, the populace was doomed and without a unique online system for the Wii at start there probably never would be one. As online titles for the Wii are announced left and right with very little said about if the online situation would improve in future, along comes the release of a game called ‘Super Mario Strikers Charged’ on the 25th of May 2007 and the announcement that the dreaded friend codes might be a bit more unique than previously thought.

According to Justin Doweswell, the producer of Mario Strikers Charged Football, the friend codes given by the Wii online system are unique to every Mii character registered. So, you may have to remember codes instead of a simple name but it should be the same code for every game you play online - And what about the Mii-specific codes?

Each Mii created generates a Mii code which never changes. This code will be used for all online games in the future. You can read the original interview in French over at Gamers.Fr. Translation via 4CR

So what does this mean for the Wii online system? Well, it’s certainly still not up to scratch with its competitors but for Nintendo right now, which probably doesn’t matter. They are at the top of the charts with top selling hardware and software and in the words of Mr. Norman Cook ‘I’m number one so why try harder?’ Nintendo know that fans of Nintendo games will flock to them whatever they do, their online system is there to give gamers something else to do with their games but as always, Nintendo will always be one step behind their competitors. Sure, their online system could be better, but they always need to have something to grow on right? The unique friend code system for Wii will certainly stop some of the complaints from fans, but they still have a lot to work on in the future.