DS Diva

I finally hit up someone with a Wii to let me try out the free Nintendo DS game downloads via the Nintendo Channel. If the Wii is wifi enabled, you just navigate to the DS Download Play area and choose from among several game trials to download. Once you select the one you want, turn on your DS console and use the stylus to select DS Download Play and confirm. The DS will “search” for the signal and soon the game demo will begin downloading.

Lately, the Nintendo Channel has had sample Personal Trainer: Cooking recipes as well as trials of new games such as Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero (due out Jan. 6, 2009) and MySims Kingdom. I tried both of them, and finally got to play around with Soul Bubbles and saw why people like the game so much. It’s hard to wrap your head around a game in which the goal is guiding “lost souls,” so the demo is a great idea.

Some demos are only available for a couple of weeks, while others are up for quite awhile. The downloads stay on your DS until you turn the power off. However, you can download the same game more than once.