When Nintendo released its touch-screen games console, the DS, it injected some much-needed innovation into handheld gaming. With the Wii (pronounced 'wee'), it looks like the Japanese manufacturer is trying to do something similar for living room video gaming.

The Wii is a small-ish, unassuming white box that comes with a collection of accessories, including a stand, a power supply, cables for connecting to the TV, a controller and a copy of Nintendo’s Wii Sports game.

It’s easy to set up and modestly-priced (£180 compared to £280 for a ‘premium’ Xbox 360) but is also less powerful than other new games consoles. Its graphics aren’t as high-resolution as the Xbox 360, for example. Instead, Nintendo has concentrated its technical wizardry in other areas, specifically a remarkable new type of control system.

The Wii’s controller comes in two parts – the Remote and the Nunchuk add-on, which is only used in certain games and plugs into the Remote as and when it’s needed. The controller connects to the console wirelessly and has a motion sensor and an on-screen aiming system as well as more traditional buttons and triggers.

This clever combination allows players to swing the controller as if they were using a bat, racket or a sword, steer with it as if they were behind the wheel of a car, aim it like a gun or even draw with it like a pen. It’s a brilliant system that makes playing games much more accessible and intuitive.

You may have heard the horror stories of people damaging their TVs, light fittings and even each other whilst playing with the Wii and it’s easy to see how such accidents might happen.

At times things can get quite physical and while you’re flailing the controller around you’re usually concentrating on what’s happening on-screen rather than what’s going on around you. As such, Nintendo provides plenty of in-game reminders to use the controller with its wrist strap and allow players plenty of room at all times.

Aside from the controller, the Wii has relatively few extra features. It can’t play DVDs or CDs, for example, although you can browse digital photos from an SD card.

As is de rigueur for games consoles these days, the Wii is internet-ready. It’s Wifi compatible and is pretty simple to add to an existing wireless network, whereupon you can gain access to the console’s online features. Some games can be played over the internet, and there are a number of other online ‘channels’, as Nintendo calls them, including one for downloading games and software to the system.

The Wii might have a silly sounding name, but then it’s clear that the console doesn’t take itself anything like as seriously as its rivals. If pick-up-and-play fun is what you want, then the Wii has it in spades.

Also consider
Microsoft Xbox 360
The most powerful games console to date

Nintendo DS
Dual-screen pocket gaming

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