As a big fan of Nintendo, I was eager to get my hands on the Wii console when it came out, having my name down for one of the precious pre orders of the console.

I got it on the release day, opened up my gleaming white box, plugged in, and have been struggling to play it since. Why?

I HAVE CHILDREN.

And they have taken over my precious Wii.

So this puts me in a great position to be an outside observer and see what games the kids enjoy, as opposed to what I think they should.

Firstly, anyone who buys a Wii gets included the great Wii Sports package. This title alone merits buying the game. Fun for all the family, it's range of 5 sports games (Golf, Tennis, Boxing, Bowling and Baseball) are well designed and incredible fun to play. The interactive use of the Wii's control system let you feel more involved, and the children seem to be able to pick it up with great ease. All my children, aged 4, 8 and 9, can get to grips with the methods, although the bowling seems to be favorite with my youngest, where as the boxing seems a little more difficult for him, but my 8 and 9 year old find it fun.
In addition, after 30 Min's to an hour of play, they all seem exercised, so benefits all round (specially at bedtime lol).

As a second purchase I got Wii Play (mainly for the additional controller included) and was pleasantly surprised at the range of games included (7 mini games including shooting, pool and tanks). For me I found the games a little easy, there purpose being to get you used to the control methods, however the kids love it. Friendly competitions (and sometimes not so friendly) break out over the games, particularly shooting, and the ease of the games means all the children have a chance to do well, which is sometimes a problem with the age differences.

Then comes Warioware, the great leveler. This series of insane mini games are based on the premise of whatever it tells you to do on screen, you do with the remote in your hand. So when it says to turn the key, you hold the remote like a key and turn it. It's that simple. It's also against the clock, so you have 4 or 5 seconds to do each task. The pace is fast and frantic, but the ideas are so simple that I can play (and get beaten my) my 4 year old without any feeling of playing down. The fact that alot of the games make you flail about like an idiot even gives an edge to the younger child who feels no embarrassment. Compare this to the mario party game, which is to be honest boring after

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