Online multiplayer progress on Wii front!

Awesomeness. What better news to come home to than that of online multiplayer finally making some progress on the Wii? So as to make for a slightly more interesting and lengthy post, I'm going to be covering this and this in the same update. OK, first up, courtesy of a Dengeki DS & Wii Style interview with the big-wigs at Intelligent Systems by IGN:

Yamagami disclosed to the magazine that his team was originally considering Wi-Fi compatibility for the recent Wii entry in the series, Goddess of Dawn. Higuchi chimed in, noting that players would probably enjoy having maps and units distributed to them via online downloads. While some development was undertaken towards this end, Narihiro admitted that difficulties with balance and technology kept the feature out of Goddess of Dawn.

But the wait for online compatibility may not be too long. Yamagami closed off by stating, "This would be the first FE for the Wii, so we decided to focus on single player and held back on Wi-Fi. However, for the next title, if we have the chance, we'd like to use it."

Yamagami goes on to mention that the series might also make the leap to the DS, seeing as how they consider the DS a suitable system for strategy role-playing. It doesn't end with this, though. Red Octane founder and President Kai Huang confirmed to IGN earlier that the Wii version of Guitar Hero III would be online-enabled as well.

While the development team is still exploring innovative ways to use the remote, Kai Huang told us: "We are really excited about the Wii game because there are so many options for the Wii remote. However, you will play the game with a guitar peripheral and it will be similar to a guitar you've seen in the past."

He also confirmed that Guitar Hero III on Wii contains features included in other versions of the upcoming game - such as online play and downloadable music.

Now, first off I have to say that it's about time. Nintendo's taken their sweet time handing out their online dev kits to developers and it's nice to see that they're finally getting their act together. Just as long as Guitar Hero III on the Wii doesn't feature Mii support, it's all good.

Coming back to online play, I'm rather excited about these two announcements. The first because I love Fire Emblem to death, and a DS or Wii FE (preferably both!) with online multiplayer would be nothing short of mindblowing. As for the second announcement, if done right, Guitar Hero III could very well go on to set a major example for other studios developing Wii games and encourage them to pursue the online capabilities of the system as well.

Needless to say though, if there's any game that really needs an online mode, it's Metroid Prime 3. I know a ton of Metroid purists would like for the game to remain single-player only, but it is a shooter and that alone gives it a large enough scope to include an elaborate multiplayer experience. Hell, look at Metroid Prime: Hunters. I still can't get over how they manged to make a portable online shooter on the DS.