All of the news about the Wii this holiday season has been about its scarcity. If anyone has been worrying about location and the Wii, it is about where to find one. While the Nintendo game platform is not new, the company apparently could not keep up with demands this holiday season. However, my crafty wife landed one a couple months ago so I’ve played it the first time recently. While the games are sure unique, using the motion of the remote to take action, there is an incredible implementation of news and weather reports tied to maps that seems to have gone almost unnoticed.

To get the Wii news and weather, one has to buy the Internet connectivity for $5. Once connected, the Wii has separate news and weather applications regularly updated over the Internet. So what? There are countless news and weather sites on the Internet and channels on TV. But like its games, the Wii news and weather are different.

It’s different because on the Wii, the news and weather are tied to interactive image maps. With NASA earth imagery as their backgrounds, the weather and news show on their locations on a globe. There is zooming and panning, making you feel powerful, moving the globe like the Greek god Atlas. Go anywhere and see the weather – for the larger cities. See news in an area with the pictures stacked up in the location the news occurred. Or review the news by category, select the story of interest, and see the full text next to the NASA image of the place.

I find the geographic interactivity of these Wii news and weather applications unique. It provides a sense of place and control over earth observation tied to current events. Kudos to Nintendo for creating a fun and interesting way to give news and weather while teaching people to see the places. Now if Nintendo only would show a map of where to buy one of these hot game machines …