Hold on to that Wii!

Nintendo has released a new home console with the odd name of Wii. It's new innovation is in the controller. The controller looks like a small TV remote with too few buttons on it. It's wireless so the player can feel free and unfettered. There are a few downsides to the new controller- like when you smash the screen of your TV.

What's neat about the controller is that is senses motion, so as you move the controller, it can control the game. For example, you can swing your arm to swing the racket in a tennis game, or twist the controller to cause a car to turn. It's an interesting idea.


The controller apparently comes with a wrist strap. I thought that was really strange; just hold onto the controller while you're playing! But I was wrong. Be careful with that Wii remote! People are breaking windows, computer screens, and even their big screen TVs when they get wild swinging their arms around and fling the wiimote.


The wrist strap, while a good idea, is apparently meant for quiet, submissive, japanese arm movements. Not ape-crazy american spazziness. It's amazing that the strap breaks! There is even (at least one) website dedicated to tracking damage caused by careless Wiimote flinging. There are some crazy pictures on the site.

I had a hard time envisioning how this sort of thing could happen until I watched this video.