The Nintendo Wii has revolutionised video game consoles and the way people play games. No longer the domain of dextrous geeks playing first-person shooting games with hand-held controls of ever-increasing complexity; video games are now accessible to virtually everyone.

The Nintendo Wii's revolutionary motion control, recently improved with the addition of Wii Motion Plus, means that games can be played by gamers using natural movements. Take a swing and you'll hit the ball!

Other peripherals have also been a huge success, including a balance board shipped with 'lifestyle' game WiiFit, which allows people to exercise while playing games. Could this be the answer to the childhood obesity epidemic?!

Cube to Wii - console games success

Many were suspicious when Nintendo announced the release of it's new console. Then codenamed 'Revolution', the Wii had many hurdles to overcome; not least of them being Nintendo's own plummeting reputation in the gaming market.

After the disastrous reception to and sales of the GameCube (which saw many pundits predicting the 'Revolution' (as the Wii was then known) would be Nintendo's last foray into the home console market), Nintendo stunned everybody by unveiling the Wii Motion Controller at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show. It marked a radical rethink of traditional video game control methods.

However, even with the (suspiciously gameplay-free) videos that Nintendo pumped out in the lead-up to the console's release creating decent hype, most people thought the console would be a total flop. They were just a little bit wrong. It is the current leader in terms of sales this generation, almost double its nearest competitor.

New and old favourite video games

The Nintendo Wii ships with Wii Sports, a glorified tech demo offering mini versions of Tennis, Bowling, Golf, Boxing and Baseball. Wii Sports, on the back of this, has recently overtaken Super Mario as the biggest selling video game of all time. It was designed to introduce people to the new control scheme. It worked. And how!

The Wii also offers great experiences for fans of older Nintendo game franchises, as well as games for Australian audiences. The Wii is home to the Mario games and The Legend of Zelda, as well as a number of very interesting exclusives such as the Aussie made De Blob, Zack & Wiki, Wii Sports Resort, Boom Blox (made with Steven Speilberg), Mad World and Little King's Story. In addition to this, a number of sports franchises have been reinvigorated through embracing the possibilities of the motion control schemes.

Hardcore gamers and everyday players

Not surprisingly, the user-friendly controls and stunning mainstream success has alienated 'hardcore' gamers who decry its sometimes clunky control schemes and the abundance of 'shovelware' (cheap, poorly conceived games, often aimed at children) that has appeared on the system in place of 'hardcore' gaming experiences.

They are partly right, of course. The Wii isn't a particularly powerful gaming experience when compared to HD gaming systems like the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony Playstation 3. But critics and detractors should also take into account the fact that the console offers a set of new experiences (and an opportunity for new non-traditional game players) that the competitors do not.

With the Nintendo Wii, the demographic of console game players has shifted: the Wii is known in gaming circles as the console your Mum plays more than you. This may be partly true, but it still gets enthusiastic use by traditional gamers, particularly in a multi-player setting.

Wii Specifications

The Nintendo Wii is not a powerful HDD (hard disk drive) gaming system, and is often referred to as GameCube 1.5 because its system specs are remarkably similar. It has no Hard Drive, and instead features 512MB of flash memory. But the console does have a card reader, which enables the installation of additional memory. It can connect to the internet, although the lack of Ethernet port means that a wireless network is required to get it online.

Online Service and back-catalogue titles

The Wii has had a lot of criticism directed at its online service; described by many as a disaster, and crippled by an incredibly counter-intuitive online connection process. Nintendo respond that connecting to others online is intentionally cumbersome to protect children from online predators.

On the other hand, the Virtual Console service is a triumph, offering old NES, SNES, N64, SEGA and TurboGrafix titles as downloads. Nintendo has also recently released a service called WiiWare, which offers original titles. WiiWare is where a lot of the Wii's gem titles are hidden away, including World of Goo, NyxQuest and Lost Winds.

On top - for now

Nintendo Wii looks likely to remain at the front of game console sales. Along with its impressive list of top-selling titles, some forthcoming games include Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Don't be surprised, though, if the new console from Xbox (codenamed Project Natal) changes the landscape again: it promises to do away with controllers altogether!