The service appears to be flourishing, as more and more users are taking their DS consoles online!

According to new figures from Nintendo, user numbers of the service have skyrocketed, with over 20 million connections in just the first two months since its launch in November 2005. Of them, an impressive 850,000 were unique users, situated in Europe, Japan, America, Australia and more.

Europe now has 20,000 fully-functioning free Nintendo Wi-Fi access points, working with several different companies over the continent. In the UK, Nintendo is partnered with BT Openzone and The Cloud. Nintendo of France is partnered with Meteor Networks, Germany with T-Com, Spain with Telefonica of Spain, Italy with Linkem, Holland with T-Mobile Netherlands, Sweden and Norway with The Cloud, Portugal with PT Wi-Fi and Greece with ForthNet.

Nintendo Europe Marketing Director Laurent Fischer commented: "Our aim is to provide a Wi-Fi service that is simple to use and accessible to everyone. We have over 20,000 free Nintendo Wi-Fi hotspots in place across Europe, ranging from airports, coffee shops, bars and hotels, and already over 850,000 people globally are using our service. We hope to continue to build on this success with the launch of more Nintendo WiFi hotspots and Wi-Fi games throughout the year."

Indeed, Nintendo has Animal Crossing: Wild World (March 31st), Metroid Prime Hunters (May 5th) and Lost Magic listed as joining the roster of Wi-Fi Connection compatible titles this Spring, when even more gamers are expected to venture forth into the world of wi-fi.