Nintendo WiiWare Demos Getting Better, But Not Nailing It Yet

More demos of WiiWare games are coming – finally. But they’re still only going to be offered for a limited time and won’t be for all titles.

For several years, Nintendo has been selling some terrific downloadable games in its WiiWare store: World of Goo, Thru-Space, Swords & Soldiers, Art Style: Light Trax, and plenty more for around $US5 or $US10. But buyers have had to beware, because Nintendo has offered few free demos of these games, a striking contrast to Microsoft, which offers free demos of every one of its downloadable Xbox Live Arcade games.

In a press release today, Nintendo took its biggest step yet to improve its WiiWare store by saying that it will offer a new round of WiiWare demos – the first time it has done so in many months – next week, on November 22. The starting line-up includes And Yet It Moves, Jett Rocket, Bit.Trip.Fate and ThruSpace. (I haven’t played Jett Rocket, but I can vouch for the other three as being well worth a try.)

All’s not perfect here. The good/bad news from Nintendo is that “additional demos will be added on Mondays and each will remain available on the Wii Shop Channel for a limited time”.

Why not demos for all games? And why not keep them available forever?

At least it’s an improvement. Enjoy those demos.