Wii Remote

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $69.95     Save $6.95 $63.00
Availability
Genre	Accessories
Platform	Nintendo Wii
Release Date	07/12/2006

The Wii remote is what sets the Wii console apart from it’s competition.  The remote is what makes playing games so easy and the reason the Nintendo Wii is the number one selling console in Australia.  If you are playing a sport game you just simply swing the remote like you would a tennis racket or golf club.  How easy is that!

Wii Remote Product Information

The Wii Remote is motion-sensitive, letting you twist, lunge, tilt, and shake your way to gaming greatness. It can also be used as a direct pointing device, so you can point and click directly at the screen.

In a tennis game, it serves as your racquet. In a driving game, it serves as your steering wheel. For first-person shooters, the Wii Remote acts as your weapon that you point at an enemy. A rumble device and a built-in speaker offer feedback.

Wii Remote Review 

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.

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.

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.

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 definitely taking a day off from Wii Sports today however, but this is not my retirement.

Full review CAIO