Nintendo's Fortune Street is the latest in a long line of Japanese virtual board games, but the first one to come to the U.S.  Fans of Monopoly are likely to really enjoy this one, which leads to the question - since Monopoly is a popular game - why Nintendo never gave us any of the previous games.  That's a question I can't answer (and honestly I don't much care), but I can tell you if it was worth the trip to America.  To find out, read my review of Fortune Street.

Would you like to curl up in front of your game console to read a book?  That's the possibility raised in an article in Forget The Box, which reports that an unnamed employee of a software developer claims that Nintendo had contacted them about assisting in porting IOS games, which run on Apple handheld platforms like the iPhone, to the Wii U to be played on the controller's touch screen.  He also said that Nintendo was turning the upcoming console - as well as the 3DS - into e-readers.

Besides the possibility of being able to read books and magazines on your controller, an e-reader-controller means you could read strategy guides on it while playing games.  The article says it might also be used for manuals for WiiWare games, but since Electronic Arts has already dropped paper manuals, telling people to go online to read them instead, I suspect it's fairly likely that Wii U games could wind up all having e-reader manuals only.

The article's writer is so entranced by the e-reader idea that he spends no time discussing the possibility of IOS games on the controller, but I find this intriguing.  It would be interesting if you could play some of the most popular iPhone games on a Nintendo device, and it would allow the Wii U to still appeal to casual gamers even while Nintendo is promising to offer more to core gamers.

I'm also not sure if I'll really want to read books and magazines on a 6 1/5 inch screen for any length of time. But it sounds great for manuals and strategy guides.  (I also hope the Wii U will allow you to browse the Internet in the middle of a game, so you could quickly dash over to gamefaqs.com when you're stuck.)

The Daily reports that Nintendo is working on a "full-blown app store" for the Wii U, according to "a person familiar with the matter."

What does that mean?  Well, the site doesn't offer a lot of details.  The reporter says there will be an MLB.TV app (apparently it's a baseball streaming service) and theorizes there will be apps for checking email and browsing the web.  Some apps will be specifically for the tablet controller, others will use the TV screen.

I really hate stories like this, because they don't tell you much, mainly offer information you already expected (of course you'll be able to browse the web), and use vague language.  The Daily says the Wii Shop is only a "'light' app store," but it does have apps and games, so does "full-blown" simply mean, "has more apps?"

This is really barely worth mentioning, but it is a slow news week.