When they were first revealed to the public, it was said that the Wii remote controllers were a fantastic new invention, making use of motion sensors and accelerometers to sense the motions of a player. The many Wii games that soon followed were proof of this statement, being fun and exciting, and quite unlike any other console games to date.

With the success of the Wii console now secure and continuously growing, Nintendo has decided to improve its revolutionary gaming system even further. While the Wii motion controllers do indeed do an excellent job of sensing motion and translating that into motions on-screen, they are still limited in the area of sensitivity. The motion sensors contained within the controllers are only able to detect a motion that has a minimum amount of force. Smaller motions escape detection by the motion sensors.

Thus Nintendo engineers have invented the Wii Motion Plus. The Wii Motion Plus is a simple add-on that can be attached to the bottom of a Wii controller, making the controller slightly longer than in its natural state. With it, players gain new levels of control when playing existing Wii games. Previously, the Wii controllers were only able to sense the magnitude of a motion and rudimentary orientation. That meant that they were able to sense how hard you swung the controller, as well as whether it was being held upside down or right side up.

The Wii Motion Plus, however, contains what Nintendo engineers call dual-axis, ?tuning fork? angular rate sensors. The Wii Motion Plus, when attached to regular Wii controllers, will make the controllers much more sensitive to motion.

Nintendo has also developed a host of new Wii games to take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus? enhanced capabilities. With the improved sensitivity of the motion sensors, players can now make much smaller movements with the Wii controllers and still have them detected by the system and transmitted to the console.

New Wii games such as the Wii Sports Resort have been developed specially to take advantage of that new sensitivity, requiring players to make more minute and deft movements when playing games instead of the exaggerated swings that were previously required. It is quite conceivable that players will also be able to download patches and expansions for existing Wii games to make them more compatible with the Wii Motion Plus add-on.

With the Wii Motion Plus, new Wii games promise players even greater fun and entirely new levels of interactivity. Players will even be able to add spins to the ball when playing tennis, or curve the ball while playing golf ? the possibilities for this new technology abound. One thing is for sure, however. Until other gaming consoles include motion sensing technology into their controllers and games, the Nintendo Wii will remain the most popular gaming console worldwide and continue to outsell every other gaming console.