Nintendo of America will start rolling out the new Wii Channel as a free download starting in mid-May.

It will offer downloadable DS titles and information about the company’s games alongside WiiWare. Wii users will be able to log into the online Wii Shopping Channel from the console’s main menu and download the Nintendo Channel application for free. If a user has played a WiiWare game for at least an hour, they will be able to review the game on the Nintendo Channel and will be other customer’s reference in their purchasing decisions since the company doesn’t provide free demo versions of WiiWare games.