NINTENDO Wii Remote - Remote - wireless > Reviews (46)

I know. Awful pun, but how else can you introduce the Wii? Quite frankly this is ground breaking technology in this controller that is dubbed the 'Wiimote'. At least now when you hear me referring to it as that in this review and around the rest of Ciao you will know what I'm talking about.

So yesterday I unpack my Wii all excited. The Wiimote came in sufficent packaging, no damaging, and from there I had to put the batteries that were also supplied into the Wiimote. Easy as pi.. er, pie. The wrist strap was also already attatched to the Wiimote saving valuable gaming minutes trying to somehow tie a knot to attatch it (this is what you put your hand through so that when you're playing games the Wiimote doesn't fly out of your hand).

I'd been following the Wii progress on the internet so I already knew the layout of the Wiimote pretty well. The D-Pad is at the very top of the controller, then the 'A' button then you have '-', '+' and a the home button indicated by, guess what - a picture of a home. Further down the controller you then have '1' and '2' and on the back of the Wiimote is a 'B' button.

I find the 'A' and 'B' buttons really comfortable to press. The three centre buttons ('-', 'home' and '+' are also fairly accessible). I also think the D-Pad is easy to use but last night when my Dad was trying out Bowling on the Wii he was having trouble setting up his shot with the D-Pad. He NEVER plays games though, so that wasn't surprising - the last time he played a game was Bust-A-Move on Nintendo 64 (and he's colour blind).

Buttons '1' and '2' are a little more difficult at the moment, but none of the games really require them just yet. The only time I have to press them is in Zelda when you're getting up a map or something, so with no urgency to press them it doesn't really matter how long it takes you to reach to them.

How long is this Wiimote going to take to get used to then? Well when you first set up the Wii you tell it if your sensor bar is above or below the TV, you think, "Ok this should sort out all my wibbly wobbly cursor movement." For me, it didn't. It felt like the Wii didn't even know what I was doing but eventually it does come to you. I can just imagine a lot of younger children opening this on Xmas Day and having a very hard time getting to grips with it and pretty much ruining their Christmas. The shrieks of "MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT DOESN'T WORK!!" Urrgh. Parents maybe you should try it out first before your kids so you can teach them.

I would say after about an hour I was fluent with the Wiimote. When you're playing Wii Sports you do have to be fairly careful where you are in relation to the sensor bar - for example, make sure you're Bowling straight with it if you want the ball to go straight. It took me a while to get to grips with Wii Tennis but now I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. At first it didn't seem to have a clue what I was doing when I was doing forehand shots but I realised that is because I wasn't pulling my weight. If you seriously want to do well in these Wii Sports games you are going to have to think about breaking a sweat.

In The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess then Wiimote is much more relaxing however. The slashing the controller to make Link use his sword that everyone was so scared about? An incredible part of the game. Honestly. Sometimes it maybe a little slow to react, but I'm sure that's just another learning curve that comes with the controller (the same can be said when you're playing Wii Boxing, you can't keep throwing the controller forwards because the controller isn't going to respond to a shot every mili-second). Things like aiming your boomerang are a little harder because most of the time when you go to use it you will get a message saying "Point Your Wiimote At The Screen". Just sit up or use the 'Z' button on your nunchuk and that issue is EASILY resolved.

Back on to the wrist restraints. There has been some bad press going around that these wrist restraints will snap and that they will fly through your 60 inch Plasma HD-Ready TV - I suppose it could happen, but right now I haven't been given any reason to think it will. At the start of EVERY game you are WARNED put on your wrist restraint. The wrist restraints feel fairly sturdy as well and they are easily adjustable to the size of your hand (all sizes will fit) so just make sure you fit yours properly.

The closest I've came to my TV breaking is when people have been getting too excited and flying their feet around. That's not the Wiimotes fault.

On the bottom of the face of the Wiimote are 4 set places that can light up, depending what light is lit shows what controller you are to the system. So if you are playing multiplayer you won't have to wonder what part of the split scren you should be looking at. Also if someone pauses the game and is messing around with the options, the cursor has a number on it so the blame game is easily avoidable when someone is losing and "doesn't know who quit out of the game."

A problem with playing with the Wiimote on multiplayer is that you need a big room. Consider you're all standing up playing Wii Sports throwing your arms around. There is bound to be trouble. There are clear warnings to keep away from people and objects when playing, but how big of a bedroom does Nintendo think we have.

Also the Wiimote is pretty expensive. You're looking at £30 a controller right now (or you can get a good deal by buying Wii Play that comes with a free Wiimote for £35) and when you factor in that the batteries in your Wiimote will eventually run out you are looking at some extra costs there.

And you wouldn't believe how painful my shoulder was when I woke up this morning. That is all down to me taking Wii Tennis too seriously, I also nearly injured my hamstring. These are injuries I never got when I played the sport for real but got it from 1-2 hours of playing it on the Wii. That's not a good sign, but hopefully my body will get used to the new technology I'm loving using. I'm definitly taking a day off from Wii Sports today however, but this is not my retirement.

Overall Nintendo have put together a great controller here that will be fun for all the family over Christmas. I would recommend it for everyone, but hopefully you won't have any accidents with it.