Monday, December 18, 2006

"Wii Elbow"

The unconditional love shown by international media for Nintendo's peculiar new console, the Wii, was never a state that could last. The tendency to want to unseat that which is placed on a pedestal normally takes time to make itself known - in this case the Wii has been drawing fire only days after its US launch.

Heralded for everything from its eccentric control mechanics to its comparatively low price, the backlash (or in the case of UK media, "forelash") has begun on a number of fronts.

Firstly the control method, which sees you waving a remote control-style 'wand' to interact with games, has been causing a new condition dubbed by the Wall Street Journal, "Wii elbow".

As if that weren't enough, early reports of wrist-exhaustion after only an hour or two of play don't bode well for epics like Zelda: Twilight Princess.

And for those with large, fragile TV sets, there's a report of one unlucky gamer losing his grip on the Wii-mote during a crucial swing and breaking the screen of his 60" rear projection TV in the process.

Others with large screen TVs have found it difficult to set up the sensor bar to detect their movements accurately.

The reality is that given that Wii is a new and family-friendly item of consumer technology that most observers think will be purchased alongside an Xbox 360 or PS3, and that it's arriving just in time for Christmas, that none of this will matter one bit to eager punters.

Saturday, December 02, 2006