Wii Will, Wii Will Rock You!

I've never been one for games consoles.

I've always found them a bit geeky and could never understand the appeal.

I suppose my main beef with them is firstly that most of them require playing alone or aren't particularly interactive - the player ends up hunched over a screen not seeing the light of day (or indeed other people) for hours on end.

My other main issue with them is the level of extreme violence so many of them contain.

I personally don't find death, war or violence (real or virtual) particularly fun ideas in any context, let alone as the subject of a 'game'.

Enter the Wii.

I think I fell in love with it the moment I saw it.

It's unique selling point is it picks up on something no one else yet has: how many times have you been playing a car racing game on a console and futilely thrust the controller in the direction of the corner you're steering round?

Well with the Wii this doesn't make you look like a complete prune any more (well, not quite so much anyway).

Just watching my Grandfather flailing his arms around in an attempt to swim on Mario and Sonic Olympics makes the Wii a worthwhile purchase in my eyes.

Laura Vickers

The fact you actually use the controller properly to act out what you need to do also means hours of pure hilarity (Wii Play's Cow Racing, anyone?!).

Just watching my Grandfather flailing his arms around in an attempt to swim the butterfly on Mario and Sonic Olympics or my camp friend David doing the 'hula hoop' on Wario Smooth Moves makes the Wii a worthwhile purchase in my eyes.

And that's just what appeals to me: you watch others play the games because the whole idea of the Wii is that it's fun to play together!

This console revolutionises what has thus far been an extremely anti-social pastime - for me there is no clearer reason why the Wii's name sounds like a plural pronoun.

As a proud owner of a Wii I am also delighted that I do not own even one violent game - the need to use the controller so physically means the scope for cleverer, more fun and more active games increases a hundred-fold.

Plus, with the recent release of the genius that is Wii Fit it seems for once a games console might actually be good for us (although my Mum might disagree here, after she was so bad at golf on Wii Sports, the game actually told her to give up!)

Of course I'm not saying the Wii can ever compare to real life exercise or experience, but for me it's definitely the next best thing.