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Wii Is the Gadget That Makes Us 'Most Happy,' Survey Finds

by Warren Riddle on February 28, 2009 at 12:15 PM



The Gadget Helpline, a service in England, has turned its attention from helping consumers deal with tech-angst to investigating which gadgets bring consumers the most joy. A survey of 2,500 subscribers of the helpline identifies the Nintendo Wii as the most crowd-pleasing gadget in England.

Released only two years ago in the U.K., Nintendo has already sold 5 million consoles, with 3 million purchases occurring just over the last year. The Wii even bested the iPod (number 2 in the rankings), a hot commodity across the pond since its 2001 U.K. release.

What's your favorite video game console?
Nintendo Wii6382 (52.0%)
Xbox 3602867 (23.4%)
PlayStation 32150 (17.5%)
I'm not sure874 (7.1%)


The Wii's appeal can possibly be attributed to its gender-neutral approach toward a diverse melange of age groups. The Wii, with controls that require participants to mimic actual movements, attracts non-traditional gamers who previously possessed no interest in rapidly pressing buttons to kill mutants, fight aliens or rob drug lords (not that there's anything wrong with that.)

A Gadget Helpline spokesman told the The Telegraph, "With the world now quite literally at our fingertips, we're fast being robbed of the need to socialise with other humans, but the success of games consoles shows that there remains huge appeal in the concept of sharing time and space with friends and loved ones." How quaint. Thanks to Conan, Americans know the true appeal of video games is to "crush your opponents, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." [From: TheTelegraph.co.uk]

Wiimote Disasters (Wiinjuries?)

    This poor soul had the misfortune of approaching her inebriated boyfriend while he battled a Zelda beast. Even with that smile on her face, and that relatively convincing story, we're still wanting to look up the hotline number.

    This overly zealous 'Wii Baseball' player was shocked to find his bat controller slam into his Plasma TV. Try backing up in that batter's box there, slugger.

    Mere hours after purchasing the system, one hapless Wii owner watched as his friend, aiming to deliver a strike in 'Wii Bowling', lost his grasp on the Wiimote and destroyed a 60-inch TV. And as for the brand new wrist strap? It broke. Nintendo had better get the bill for this one.

    'Wii Bowling' + Adrenaline + Low Ceilings + Ceiling Fan = Bad News

    This guy reached to snatch his cat off a restricted couch, but -- forgetting to remove his Wiimote -- clobbered the poor critter on the leg. Now, $512 worth of veterinary bills later, we imagine ol' boy will be a little more careful next time.

    As ugly as the damage Wiimotes do to rear projection TV's is, we haven't seen anything like this Wii-destroyed LCD TV. The culprit? You guessed it. A broken wrist strap.

    Deep in a game of 'Wii Tennis,' one Wii rookie let loose a fierce volley and -- the wrist strap breaking -- took a considerable chunk out of this door. Fortunately for this guy, a container of Bondo is a lot cheaper than a television set.

    On Christmas morning, the kids in this Wisconsin household were overjoyed to find a new Wii system under the tree. After hooking it up to their recently purchased 70-inch RP TV, they let the good times roll. Roll right into the screen, apparently, thanks to a broken wrist strap. Television Deaths by Defective Straps (TDDS): 2.

    Since the wrist strap of this majestic Wii spear is conspicuous in its absence, we're tempted to give this picture a TDDS rating. But, since this tube TV is resilient and still, apparently, functioning, we'll just give it a half-credit.

    As he explained to WiiHaveAProblem.com, this Danish guy smacked into a light fixture while playing 'Wii Tennis' with, in his words, "great empathy and excitement." Forget broken fingers; empathizing with video games points to more severe problems.


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Tags: best gadgets, BestGadgets, most popular gadgets, MostPopularGadgets, nintendo wii, NintendoWii, wii, worst gadgets, WorstGadgets

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