After a heated debate among the boys, it was eventually decided that Wii was the coolest. Nintendo caters to a young audience so it didn’t surprise me that this was the console of choice among my son and his friends. The deciding factor was the distinguished Wii Remote, also known as the Wiimote. Its motion sensing feature allows the user to interact with the game, handling objects on screen with movement and pointing. This is different than the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 because the Wii controller works in three dimensions. You don’t just press a button, you actually move around to control your game. The Wiimote vibrates, has built-in speakers, and can connect with three other controllers. All of this makes for a different kind of gaming experience.

I must admit my first reaction to this Wiimote gadget was a cynical one since new technology is often marketed before it is working just right. I pictured all the hopeful children gleefully opening their Wiis in their pyjamas and then discovering the Wiimote does some weird thing on screen making the game worthless and teaching kids everywhere not to put too much faith in techno hype. So before getting my kid a Wii this Christmas I decided it was worth a try.

I won’t go into too much detail about exactly which games worked best with the Wiimote since that would be another discussion. As I predicted, the Wiimote gave me trouble at times such as when I missed the tennis ball a few times at no fault of my own. I will say that overall the Wiimote behaved quite well so, at least in my mind, the Wiimote is a big Pro for Nintendo. The Nintendo Wii also has strong parental controls that moms and dads will like.