Wii no Ma was an online service for the Wii released only in Japan on May 1, 2009 and was discontinued three years later on April 30, 2012. It was a huge success as it allowed users to watch, stream, and download various media such as movies, anime, trailers, as well as providing a virtual shopping catalog provided by many sponsors using Wii Points.
General Information[]
Wii no Ma takes place in a Japanese living room where users can add up to eight Mii characters who would sit around a tea table with a TV being available for them to watch. Users can look around the room and interact with various objects to be directed to various services. Every major service can be quickly accessed via the button(s) at the bottom of the screen. Before its discontinuation, Wii no Ma had five Kirby-related services that it offered.
Kirby Room[]
By clicking on the "いろんな間" button (lit. "Various Room") or the potted plant, users were greeted with a line of marching Miis holding up signs displaying various company or franchise logos such as Honda, Warner Bros, Pokémon, and Kirby.
Selecting the Kirby Room brings users to an empty room with a white tea table and a line of videos the user can scroll through; a 3D model of Kirby might sometimes appear on the table. These videos are mainly trailers for various Kirby titles for the Wii and Nintendo DS along with promotional merchandising video advertisements, as well as five episodes for Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.[1] These five episodes are:
- Episode 1: Kirby Comes to Cappy Town
- Episode 7: Kirby's Egg-Cellent Adventure
- Episode 13: Cappy New Year
- Episode 49: Cartoon Buffoon
- Episode 60: Crusade for the Blade
Around this time when these episodes were being added to the Kirby Room, Kirby 3D on the Nintendo Video application for the Nintendo 3DS was also released. Kirby's Return to Dream Land would also release the following day after Nintendo tweeted this announcement on October 26, 2011.[2] This room was added October 10, 2011 and removed April 8, 2012.[3]
Advertisement from the Kirby Room
Throughout the room's lifespan were various advertisements encouraging viewers to participate in certain Kirby-related lotteries and giveaways. To participate, users were most likely redirected to the Lucky Bag Room. There have been at least four Kirby-related giveaways during its run with the fourth one featuring mascot figures for Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
Lucky Bag Room[]
The "福袋の間" option (lit. "Lucky Bag Room") was one of the choices during the Various Rooms menus where users can enter a raffle for bags and other goods such as food and drinks from various franchises/companies from January 1-5 2010, 2011, and 2012. During the 2010 period, a Kirby-themed raffle bag was given away to 100 winners; the deadline to apply was November 11 of that year.[4] It included 10 items inside a presumably Kirby-themed bag. What these 10 items were are unknown, however based on the advertisement picture, it may have included numerous plushies, toys, a Meta Knight poster, and other Kirby: Right Back at Ya! merchandise.
Theater Room[]
On November 21, 2009, the "シアターの間" (lit. "Theater Room") was added to Wii no Ma as a free update that allowed users to watch and download rentals of various videos, movies, and anime for Wii Points. During the rental period, users were allowed to watch the purchased content as many times as they liked. A short snippet of the anime's Japanese opening can also be seen during the Theater Room's introduction video that plays passively every time a user enters the room. In December 2009, all 100 episodes of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! became available to watch in the Theater Room with one to three episodes being added irregularly since the launch of the Theater Room.[citation needed] During this time, the anime was merely referred to as "ワープスター アニメ" (lit. Warp Star anime) before being renamed to "アニメ ワープスター" (lit. anime Warp Star) instead.
When an episode is selected, a pop-up menu with three options appear: an image that shows the episode's synopsis as well as a random image from the episode, an option to watch the video, and an option to temporarily rent the video. If the user decides to rent the video, they are brought to another menu that displays the statistics of the purchase: the rental period (typically 7 days) and how many Wii Points the user has, how much the rental costs, and the number of Wii Points they will have if purchased. Only the first two episodes of the anime were free to watch whereas the rest of the episodes, including the aforementioned additional Copy Ability showcase video, cost 100 Wii Points.[5][6]
On October 10, 2010, to celebrate the upcoming release of Kirby's Epic Yarn, an entire category was dedicated to the anime when searching for certain categories of videos.[7] Some of the episodes were later re-released in groups of five.[8] There was also an additional video within Kirby's section showcasing all of Kirby's Copy Abilities as seen in the anime. By this time, the Theater Room had revamped its layout by using a transparent blue UI instead of all white.
Wii no Ma episode thumbnails[]
These are all the episode thumbnails of the anime from the Theater Room, minus the Copy Ability compilation episode and the episodes that were group in fives. The two-part episodes are meant to be displayed side by side; they are marked by green lettering and have a background with a multitude of screens behind Kirby. Kirby's image on the front represents the most significant Copy Ability transformation in the episode, with the exception of Air-Ride-in-Style - Part I, where he flies the Formula Star. If Kirby isn't shown having an ability or standing with something associated with one, it means none is featured within that episode.
Shows[]
By clicking on the "番組を見る" option (lit. "Watch the Shows") or the TV, the user was given a large selection of categories to choose from to watch videos of that category. Kirby 3D was one of the videos that could have been watched. Unlike its North American version which was split into two parts, this special was uncut. According to this feature, around the time the Copy Ability special video was released, it appears to also have a demo version and a full version possibly meaning this special video had to be paid for. Other videos as seen in the Theater Room will also appear here but will redirect the user to the Theater when selected.
Shopping[]
By clicking on the Shopping option, the user is directed to menu where they can watch advertisements for a multitude of products ranging from household appliances to merchandise. Unlike renting videos in the Theater Room, products were bought with actual money, not Wii Points. If the user were to select the option to search for specific products, an icon representing the Kirby series may appear if there were anything in stock. On November 1, 2010,[9] Wii no Ma had a Kirby's Epic Yarn sale where it was selling a special AmiAmi plushies, one of which coming with a complementary Yarn Kirby patch given only to the first 400 buyers.[10][11] This patch was also given to attendees who played the Kirby's Epic Yarn demo at E3 June 2010.[12] Merchandise that came from shopping from Wii no Ma were sent in a special Wii no Ma-themed box.
Translations[]
Posters[]
Posters can be found on the wall in the living room area where it would display images of various games, anime, or companies. Clicking on it would expand the image and play a short video relating to what the image is promoting. One poster titled 『毛糸のカービィ発売記念 星のカービィ コピー大特集スペシャル!』(translates to: "Kirby's Yarn Release Commemoration Kirby of the Stars Copy Special Special!") was posted late 2010.[13] It is unknown what this poster looked like and what the relating video was, however it was most likely an advertisement referring to the special video that showcasing a compilation of various Copy Abilities from the anime to commemorate the release of Kirby's Epic Yarn in the Theater Room.
Right next to the poster in the living room is a TV that randomly plays a video from the Theater Room or from the Various Rooms with one of those videos being the first episode (or second episode if "bought") of the Kirby anime, Kirby Comes to Cappy Town.
See Also[]
References[]
- ↑ 167hirona.blog98 October 20, 2011 entry
- ↑ Nintendo official Twitter
- ↑ June 18, 2012 edit for the Wii no Ma Japanese Wikipedia page
- ↑ Gamesmemo.com article Oct. 19, 2011
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ LiveDoor Blog
- ↑ Inside-games.com article Oct. 10, 2010
- ↑ Blog by Toru Sakura on Feb. 22, 2012
- ↑ N-Wii.net
- ↑ のんびりとWiiの間実況プレイPart2 | niconico.jp
- ↑ Article on http://smame.jugem.jp/ about Wii no Ma Shopping Kirby merch
- ↑ E3 BREAK!: Yeah, I just got a Kirby patch – Destructoid
- ↑ History of Kirby | PlanetKirby atwiki.jp