The first piece of Nintendo's long-awaited Wi-Fi Connection service is up and running.
NintendoWiFi.com, the hub website for all Wi-Fi Connection operations, went live before noon EST today. The site contains hubs for all four WFC-compatible games, Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, Animal Crossing: Wild World, and Metroid Prime Hunters. In the case of Mario Kart DS, the hub shows the top five players, top cities players hail from, and video clips and shots of the game being played online.
The site also features several support options for getting your WFC-enabled game off the ground, including server status, hotspot listings for the US and Canada, and router compatibility ratings.
The site also confirms several details about the 12-digit Friend Codes that are used to create friend lists in the games that support this feature. Your Friend Code is generated the first time you connect online with a particular game, and are tied to your DS and your copy of the game. Using a copy of the game in another DS unit can render your Friend Code invalid, so Nintendo advises players not to share WFC game cards between DS units.
Friend Codes must be registered in two different systems before both players will be able to play online. Two people can also be mutually added to each others' friend lists if they have a local wireless play session with the game in question.
We here at N-Sider will have our own hands-on time with Mario Kart DS shortly, so stay tuned for full details on how the WFC works as well as impressions of Mario Kart DS itself.