Nintendo Wii launch - Enjoy the virtual experience

" title="Nintendo Wii launch - Enjoy the virtual experience" />

The Nintendo Wii, coming to Europe on 8 December, is being promoted as something any member of the family can pick up - a console that "will introduce new people to the weird world of videogames".

The white and sleek console is very attractive and comes for a paltry $250 compared to the $499 price tag of the Sony PS3.

One of the eye catching features of this console is that instead of pressing buttons or moving a joystick to direct what was going on onscreen, the Wii remote is controlled by physical movement - you can twist it, wave it, wriggle it or handle it like a sword in the air.

The machine is a bit weird to handle at first but straightforward enough once you get the hang of the physical movement as well as developing the eye to hand synchronization.

'Wii Sports', comes free and is packed in with the console itself. The sporting collection of bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing and golf lets players literally swing the Wii Remote like a bowling ball, racket, bat, boxing glove and golf club.

Within the first five weeks of launch, Wii owners can pick from up to 62 games including 32 totally new titles, representing the most diverse, and most exciting, console videogame library available.

The entire library of more than 530 Nintendo GameCube games can also be played on the Wii console from day one because Wii is directly backward compatible allowing gamers to enjoy the previous games on the new console as well.

The Nintendo Wii will go on sale in the US on 19 November, in Japan on 2 December and Australia on 7 December. The launch will come just two days after the planned November 17 launch date of Sony's own next-generation video game console, the PlayStation 3 and hopes to give a pretty tough time to the world's largest selling gaming console.