A flood of downloadable games; a fairy-tale serial

News from the virtual world:

— BEAM ME DOWN: In the six months since its debut, Nintendo's Wii has been breaking records and racing past milestones at a breathtaking clip. This week's achievement: the 100th game offered for downloading from Nintendo's online Virtual Console service. Game 100 is 1988's "Zelda II: The Adventure of Link" — frankly, one of the weaker "Legend of Zelda" adventures. (If you're going to download a "Zelda" title, make it "Ocarina of Time.") Nintendo says 40 percent of Wii owners are connected to Virtual Console, and they've downloaded more than 4.7 million games.

But how do Nintendo's online offerings match up with those from its competitors? Right now, Sony's PlayStation Network has about 30 games for sale; Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade has more than 60. But a good portion of Xbox Live's games — like my current addiction, the board-game adaptation "Catan" — are originals rather than revivals of "classic" games. Until Nintendo and Sony catch up in that regard, Microsoft will retain its reputation as the online gaming leader.

— GRIMM FUTURE: If you want a really enormous library of classic games, however, you need to turn on your PC and head over to GameTap. The online service owned by Turner Broadcasting System has more than 850 titles, 30 of which are free to play even if you don't pay the subscription fee.

However, GameTap's biggest success over the past year has come from its commitment to episodic games — namely, the six-episode run of Telltale Games' "Sam & Max." GameTap's next episodic project is even more ambitious: "American McGee's Grimm" is a 24-chapter game scheduled to launch in the first half of 2008. It's an action-adventure game based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tales, from Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin to Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood.

"My interpretation of these classic fables will provide gamers with an entertaining and interactive way of experiencing how the stories were originally meant to unfold," said McGee, who's best known for his work on "Doom," "Quake" and an earlier kid-lit project, "American McGee's Alice." And yes, that is his real name.

— UNWIRED: Nintendo's other machine — the portable DS — also has some nice numbers going for it. Nintendo says that since the product's launch in November 2005, more than 5 million players have challenged each other over the DS' Wi-Fi connection. Those gamers, the company says, have racked up more than 200 million Wi-Fi game sessions.