Wii strap recall a good move by Nintendo - but is it enough?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 16 December 2006 20:17

Your IT - Entertainment

While recalling 3.2 million Wii straps will undoubtedly be costly for Nintendo, the spate of real and fake reports of damaged TVs and injured players should soon come to an end. Right?

Increasing the strap from 0.6mm to 1mm through a voluntary recall is definitely a good move on Nintendo’s part, but until the new straps are around people’s wrists and the Wii remote (the Wiimote), users will just have to be careful and hold on tight.

A temporary solution might be to find a strong strap of your own and use that it the meantime. Such straps are often used with digital cameras, phones and other portable devices.

Look around in electronics and other stores to see what you can find, so you, your friends and your TV aren’t the victim of a strap break while you wait for the official new strap to arrive, once you’ve contacted Nintendo about getting a replacement for the existing strap.

It’s also worth noting that the Wiimote does not need to be moved around so vigorously. People are just doing that because they’re really getting into the game. Clearly that’s a good thing, but it’s not good when so much force is used that is causes the strap to break.

So if you’ve got a Wii, go easy on the vigorous movements. Nintendo are unlikely to be replacing anyone’s TV or paying medical bills to treat black eyes or bumps on friend’s or fellow family members’ heads.

Quite a few of the incidents reported online also appear to be faked, so while there are no doubt real incidents that are worrying, a number of people are clearly just in it to see if they can make a buck out of Nintendo.

And when your replacement strap comes through, an extra 0.4mm of strap thickness is no guarantee the strap won’t break in the future, especially if vigorous movements cause the Wiimote to slip out of your hand, only to be caught by the strap. The strap will inevitably weaken it over time, but no doubt Nintendo have subjected the new strap to as much punishment as they could to ensure it really is much stronger than before.

Once again, as new straps find themselves wrapped around people’s wrists, we’ll find out whether it really was enough or not. But for now, we applaud Nintendo’s quick move to provide a solution to this problem. Wii just hope it’s enough! And wii don't think the Wii jokes wiill ever end, eiither.