Speaking of the Wii.TOKYO — Nintendo may have a Wii little problem.
The American branch of the Japanese video-game company has sent an e-mail to registered owners of its just-released home console, reminding them to please, please hold on to the Wii's motion-sensitive wireless controller, to always use the safety wrist strap — and to keep their hands dry while playing the physically demanding games.
"Do not let go of the remote during game play," the e-mail, posted Wednesday on gaming blog Joystiq.com, reads. "For example, in a game like Wii Sports bowling, the ball is thrown by simply releasing the B Button on the remote, not by letting go of the remote!"
"If your hands become moist," the e-mail continues, "stop and dry your hands. Excessive motion may cause you to let go of the remote and may break the wrist strap."
"We are investigating" reports of Wii wrist straps breaking, company president Satoru Iwata said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
"Some people are getting a lot more excited than we'd expected," Iwata said. "We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment."
A Web site,
http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com, purports to document reports of TV sets, media cabinets, even a PDA screen all cracked by Wii remotes that have flown across rooms and into expensive electronic items.
We at FOX News aren't sure whether to trust photos of TVs that have huge cracks across their screens, yet still seem able to display an image, but others seem genuine.
"We literally have consumers letting go of the remote like you do a bowling ball. You can't do that!" Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aime — dubbed "The Regginator" by wisecracking Nintendo fans for his endearingly aggressive public appearances — told Reuters last week.
The company has not decided on any specific measures to change the strap, Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said.
Rather than just sitting in front of a TV screen for hours twiddling buttons on a traditional bat-shaped controller, players have to get up and move around in imitation of their game avatars' motions, swinging the bar-shaped Wii remote like a bat during "Wii Baseball" or thrusting it like a sword while playing "Red Steel" or "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess."
For two-handed games, such as "Wii Boxing," users grip a second controller, the "Nunchuk," which plugs into the Wii remote. Perhaps due to its ergonomic design, which fits neatly into a cupped hand, there have been few reports of wayward Nunchuks.
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