Use Stars as Wii points
Coming soon, apparently.
Wii owners in the UK will soon be able to put any "Stars" they have collected on Nintendo's official website toward the cost of Wii Points - the currency used to buy Virtual Console games.
When you first log on to the Wii Shop with your new console, you'll be asked to "link your account" to the one you have with Nintendo-Europe.com.
"By linking your Wii Shop Channel account to your online Nintendo membership, you will be able to enjoy additional benefits in the near future," the website explains.
"Not only will you then be able to purchase Wii points in the Stars Catalogue, you will also get Stars for your Virtual Console purchases upon completing a small survey."
Stars are points redeemed by using codes included with Nintendo software sold in the UK. You get some with the Wii itself, too.
In the past Nintendo's made things like games available to people with lots of Stars, but typically there's no physical merch available on the website, just MP3s and wallpaper - leading to a lot of people slagging off the system. Nice to see it finally getting some proper use, eh?
We'll let you know when this all comes into play. Wii points retail at about GBP 14.99 for 2000 points, with Virtual Console games split into price brackets based on their system (e.g. 500 for NES, 800 for SNES, 1000 for N64).