When it comes to the online aspect of videogaming, Nintendo has been consistently and notoriously two steps behind. So it's no surprise that its fledgling online distribution service, WiiWare, isn't getting the love it deserves. An Edge article critical of the service has been posted on Next Generation, taking Nintendo to task for their short-sighted implementation and lack of marketing support:

…the company needs to be clearer about its hands-on involvement with and support for the service. Right now, and in stark contrast to the clear strategies it has in place for its DS and Wii hardware, it is sending out some very mixed messages.

If I may add to Edge's list of complaints, I think the distinction between Nintendo's Virtual Console and WiiWare isn't clear (the former is for ports and updated versions of old games, the latter is for entirely new games). At a time when Microsoft and Sony are doing a great and decent job, respectively, of pushing content through their consoles, Nintendo is lagging behind.

By the way, Edge is bang-on, as they say over in England-land where they write Edge, to recommend Lost Winds. If you want to see WiiWare at its best, pony up the 1000 Nintendo points to download Frontier's sublime proof-of-concept platformer.