It may move Mario around but it still won't turn on your tv.

I got another wii mote for Christmas and decided to sit down and write about the Wii remote which makes the Nintendo Wii so unique. When you look at the Wii mote it looks remarkably like a TV remote control, despite its odd look don’t underestimate what the Wii mote can do.

What it looks like.
As I said it looks like a TV remote control it’s rectangular, and long. The control pad and A button are located at the top of the controller. While on the bottom of the same side of the controller rests the B trigger. In the middle of the remote there is a speaker and 3 more buttons the + and – buttons which kind of act like start and select and many games. And then the home button in the middle of the two, this lets you bring up the main menu in Wii games and returns you to the Wii channels home page. Finally at the very end are the 1 and 2 buttons which do different things.

At the end of the Wii mote you will also find a port to plug in accessories like the nunchuck and Classic controller. There is also the wrist strap which is used to tie your hands to the wii so you won’t go sending it flying around the room.

How it works.
The Wii comes with a sensor bar that you put in front of your TV. The Wii remote reacts to the inferred light that comes out of the sensor bar and uses it to track your distance and movement from the sensor bar. Clever people have been able to use flashlights and even candles to get the Wii mote to react. In order to get a new Wii mote to work on your Nintendo Wii you have to hit both the red synch button on the Wii controller located under the battery cover plus the synch button in the Nintendo Wii located by the SD card slot.

What you can do with the Wii.
The Wii’s remote can do a lot of things. First off it’s a nice pointer you can point and manipulate objects around the Wii main menu and many other games like Trauma Center use this feature of it as well. But there’s more the Wii mote can also sense tilt and speed which has also been used in a few games. For an example of speed you only need to look at Wii sports in order to tell. The faster you twist your wrist or swing your arm the faster you can throw things like base ball or harder you hit tennis balls. For tilt in games like Trauma Center twisting your arm can sometimes twists objects around.

Since it can sense distance as well things like pushing and pulling also come in play, to push in some games you have to push the Wii mote out in front of you, and to pull you have to pull it away from the TV set.

The Speaker.
An unique new feature in the Wii mote is the speaker found in the middle of the controller. While the sound it generates isn’t the greatest sounding stuff it gets the job done and adds to some of the realistic offering made by the Wii. When you hit the ball in baseball you’ll hear a crack of the bat depending on how good you hit it. In Zelda you’ll hear the sword clash comes from the Wii mote as well has the thwack of the arrow giving you a more realistic experience.

Virtual Console.
Since the Wii can download and play old games from the NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, and Turbo Grafix where does the Wii mote fit in. It can play 4 out of the 6 game systems the NES, Sega Genesis, and Turbo Grafix. On the VC you hold it sideways like you would an NES controller and because of this it feels an awful like the NES controller. It fits NES games perfectly with the 1 and 2 buttons filling in for the A and B B buttons. Turbo Grafix it does ok depending on the game if it requires Trubo you have to use the A and B buttons on the opposite end of the controller. And finally your better off with the classic controller or Gamecube controller on Sega Genesis games. Does it have enough buttons yes but you have to use buttons on the opposite side of the controller in order to get it all done right and that can get confusing sometimes.

Bad things on the Wii controller.
Only 2 bad things I can think of. First off it uses double A batteries rather then having any type of docking or plug in station for charging this if you’re a hardcore gamer can mean a little bit more extra money in order to get it to work. All though a good battery charger and a pack of double A recharger will only set you back 20 bucks. But the worse is the strap breaks instances. What happens during these instances is people get to carried away and swing too wildly that they let go of the wii mote with such force the strap breaks and the Wiimote goes flying. Into TV’s, walls, and even other player. The Wii controller like all Nintendo controllers is pretty durable and it comes out unscathed, the things it slams into don’t do so hot, things that have suffered Wii mote damages have been documented on a web page called Wii have a problem. Nintendo is doing a strap replacement program for this problem and the new Wii Remotes that are being sold come with an extra thick strap.

Final Recommendation.
The Wii remote is a nice piece of hardware and I can’t wait to see what kind of games Nintendo and other 3rd party developers can develop for it. Despite it’s two big cons the strap and needing double A batteries I recommend buying a 2nd wii mote party games like Mario Party 8 and Wario Ware are going to need it. It's going to be worth the extra 40 dollers for these games.