Gaming giant Nintendo announced yesterday that its wireless gaming service has crossed the one million unique user mark in less than four months of operation.

Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service lets Nintendo DS owners log on free to compete or interact in a variety of games, from racing in Mario Kart DS to community-building in Animal Crossing: Wild World.

The millionth user was a player in Japan who logged on to play Animal Crossing, Nintendo said.

Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, said: "Those one million users represent more than 27 million game sessions."

Later this month, the games giant will introduce two new Wi-Fi-enabled games to the Americas.

Tetris DS brings a twist to the addictive classic puzzle game by allowing up to four players to compete against friends or strangers.

Meanwhile, Metroid Prime Hunters features competition using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but players also have the ability to chat with one another before and after battles using VoIP.