Nintendo Clears Up Wii Heliophobia

We probably could have said wonkiness in direct sunlight, but how many chances do you get to use that word on a game site?

Talk sprang up late last week that Nintendo's new Wii console suffers when played in direct sunlight. The rumours stemmed from a posting on Nintendo's own forums from someone who had attended a play session at the Nintendo World Store in New York.

Nintendo told Kikizo today that this is a known issue with the Wii. A company representative explained that the Wii sensor bar is affected by head-on exposure to sunlight, which could cause "some interference". But he likened it to not being able to see a TV with the sun shining straight on it.

This seem much less appalling than the first-hand account from the Nintendo forum poster, who described the difficulties like this:

"For about an hour or so, the sun shone right into the store, the two [Metroid Prime 3: Corruption] kiosks had to have curtains above them, and the Wii Sports: Tennis and Shooting Game kiosks were unplayable since they were 'shrouded' in sunlight."

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The Wii's motion sensing capabilities come courtesy of a smarts-filled sensor bar that users must place near their TVs. Our Nintendo man said that if used under normal conditions, the Wii would work just fine.

We'll know for sure when the Wii is released this December - provided there's direct sun to test it with.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo