I believe this was up for a few nanoseconds yesterday. Why did you remove it and repost it now?

Well, they're offering free strap replacements.

In 9 days I shall find out whether these problems are real or just people being morons.

I find the constant postings about Wii injuries and straps breaking to be a little misleading. Nintendo has warnings in the manual, and in-game reminding people to wear the strap. If someone swings the Wiimote hard enough to break the strap, they are swinging it far too hard. If you or anyone else is acting in this manner it is clearly a fault with the users, not with the Nintendo Wii.

I've heard people voice concern about buying a Wii because they think that they'll break something in their house. That is incredibly ridiculous.

Maybe Nintendo should just come out with new instructions for the sensor bar:

"Place sensor bar directly above nearest Nintendo(tm) competitor's product. "

Awesome, free strap replacements. The one I got with my extra Wiimote doesn't look half as good as the one I got with my Wii. I've half a mind to preemptively get a replacement, because it looks like it might snap any minute. (Assuming the replacements are the good ones, of course.)

Aden.exe -- I've owned a Wii since launch and I havent had the controller slip once... I wipe when I perspire and don't throw it around like a jackass... if you do that you should be fine.... but still, they should be considering offering reinforced straps/replacements.

I personally bought a couple of controller gloves which will be handy to have around when friends come over. Because I trust me more those idiots...

THOUGH... I wouldn't recommend smoking a cigarette while using the controller... even when its not impossible and you can take puffs between swings (baseball) I ended up throwing my cigarette across the room twice... fancy they should start making cigs with Wii straps for Wiidiots like myself!

I find it odd that the extra straps I got with my offical Wii controller gloves didn't have size adjusters ... I'm not putting those on because im scared to death of slippage occuring!

I don't have a Wii yet, but I'm tempted to see if I can get a free wrist strap for my ds.

I say use handcuffs on the little kidds.

I think it's people just being morons. The video of the guy playing tennis, he obviously thought he was playing real tennis. Just by the way he tossed up a fake ball, then smacked the crap out of it.

You don't have to kill the invisible ball. Just a light swipe of the wrist will send it flying. That and hold on to the fucking remote!!

Now, on Nintendo's part. Just make the little strap that holds to the controller a little thicker. Then the morons who are throwing controllers will have nothing to bitch about.

"I ended up throwing my cigarette across the room twice"

haha, thats great.

Also, my mentioning of the free replacement strap was based on one guy getting his strap replaced, so don't hold me to that statement.

"For example, in Wii Sports bowling, the proper way to let go of the ball while bowling is to release the "B" button on the Wii Remote--DO NOT LET GO OF THE Wii REMOTE ITSELF."

I can't believe they actually had to print that in the manual. It's almost as bad as having a loading screen that reminds MMO players that they still need to go work and feed their kids.

I'm confused... what's the point of the wrist strap if not to "save" dropped Wii remotes? Why bother with it in the first place?

"It's almost as bad as having a loading screen that reminds MMO players that they still need to go work and feed their kids."

.... lol... so true! Glad im over that crack!

"I'm confused... what's the point of the wrist strap if not to "save" dropped Wii remotes? Why bother with it in the first place?"

To save $3000 plasma televisions and innocent bystandards in the way of 90mph Wii motes getting lodged in their skulls!

So retarded... If it slips out of your hands while playing and the strap catches it ok, you just got a lil' sweaty... but if it slips out of your hands, or worse you let go of it, with enough force to break the strap string and still have enough energy to punch a hole through a glass window or crack the shit out of your TV... Derrrrrr... You're doing it too hard Wiitard!

Though, I could see this being a problem with young children. But full grown men flinging it into a white board and acting amazed at how such a thing could happen... get real.

For the record:

Out of the 15-odd people that have played Wii @ my house, not a single one of them, the youngest being a 6 year old girl, have ever let the remote go. not once.

I personally don't get it...its like folks are throwing th thing our something...I dunno.

-K

I wonder if people are just forgetting to adjust the wrist strap like the picture shows, sliding the small plastic thing all the way to their arm. Otherwise the strap's not doing much.

I think instead of gloves, they need to sell ridged rubber stickers for the wiimote itself, like those non-slip stickers for your shower floor. Just something to add a little friction to the grip.

K

Crecente,

Please, please stop this retarded campaign against the wii-mote strap. It's stupid, and quite honestly I doubt most people believe that the straps are too weak.

I don't believe most of the reports, and even if true, it just shows users' stupidity.

Even if true (a HUGE if), why do you need to make so many topics on this? What number is this? 4? 8? 15?

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP IT. It only makes you and your kid look dumber for having the problem, and you seem like a petulent child for harping on it.

poor crecente D:

So Nintendo has to back track on their website to cover their own butts for making sub par controller straps, instead of coming out and admitting the fudged it. Now the Fanboys are going to use this arguement "Nuh uh, Nintendo always said that" because in Nintendo Land websites don't change.

How low can Nintendo go? Pretty low it seems.

"If you are having so much fun that you start perspiring, take a moment to dry your hands."

...what the christ? Since when is the amount of fun you're having directly proportionate to the amount of sweat you produce?

One of my friends coined a term for this issue in his blog today, he calls it the "wiidoken"

"Reckless abandon of game play has resulted in the wrist strap breaking and causing critical hit damage to your electronics. This unintentional Wii-mote Hadoken (Wiidoken) has already claimed the lives of several TVs."

And what good joke about flying Wiimotes would be good with out the obligatory animated image.

http://www.hotbutteredfunk.com/jgm/wiidoken.gif

There is NOTHING WRONG with the wrist straps on the Wiimote. Everyone whose had their strap break is obviously swinging it way too hard, and/or letting go of the Wiimote. You saw that one guy in the video playing Tennis. He looked like he was trying to break through 3 fucking boards with a pair of nunchakus. I've played Wii Sports for a good length of time, and I have pretty sweaty hands, but never once did it slip from my hands. If you strap breaks, guess what, it's your own damn fault for trying to kill the ball instead of hit it. Swinging lightning fast and that hard is unnecessary and stupid. Quit trying to blame Nintendo for your own problems.

Funny how Nintendo can get away with bullshit other companies like MSFT or Sony can not.

This isn't bullshit, this is just idiotic gamers.

Somebody should do a test on the string holding the strap to the Wiimote to find out exact how much force is required for it too break, and from this find the speed at which the controller would have to be thrown for it to break. This would prove one of two things...

1.) The string is extremely flimsy, breaking with little force applied.

2.) The string is sturdy, you just need to stop flailing your arms like a retard, and hold onto the Wiimote.

It also says "Swing gently." on FIVE PAGES in the Wii Sports manual. GENTLY.

I DECLARE A JIHAD ON NINTENDO UNTIL THEY MAKE THEIR CONTROLLER STRAPS FROM PURE ADAMANTIUM.

P.S.
Crecente, ur dum.

Also says "gently" and "lightly" in the Zelda manual. YOU ARE NOT A REAL WOLF, PEOPLE; CALM DOWN.

I don't agree that it is "Nintendo's Fault" for making a product that works under "I'm not a fucking retard" conditions. See, the people that made the strap tested it under these conditions, and then we decide to act like goddamn idiots, break the strap from being douches, and then write angry letters as to how Nintendo fucked up for selling a product that we aren't adult enough to handle. The only thing that Nintendo did wrong is assume that we could fucking hold on to the Wii-mote and not toss the thing around like a monkey shocked with a few thousand volts. Christ, I'd hate to see what you people would look like if you ever got your hands on a hammer.

I hate saying this because it sounds a bit too much like I'm bragging over how I hold my video game controller, but the first thing I did when I got my Wiimotes was take off the strap. So I can't help but feel a little lost when this subject comes up every day.

I swing the thing around plenty hard, especially when playing head-to-head with someone (I love how "into it" you can get with this thing). But not _once_ have I so much as thought 'woah, I'm glad that didn't slip'. There's just no sense of it threatening to move at all. And I certainly don't squeeze it to death.

As has been said many times now, if someone does something that makes the remote fly out of their hand, let alone break through a freaking safety strap? I really don't know what to say. Maybe "thank you gaming community for proving that we really do deserve/need those obnoxious, repetitive safety warnings Nintendo has to plaster on everything these days"? Please no one complain about those again if you can't even play a game without chucking something through your TV. Nintendo tries to treat their audience with some respect and give them a fun, active controller, and you people act like children unable to control your body functions.

[/rant]

Actually, I think Nintendo should copy Sony for once: redesign the Wii-mote after Sony's boomerang design! How cool would that be?!?

Funny how Nintendo can get away with bullshit other companies like MSFT or Sony can not.

What bullshit? This is just as bullshit as Sony being guilty for people slapping each other while playing with an EyeToy game.
Or Konami being guilty for people stepping on other peoples feet when playing DDR.

I'd say, at most, this is Nintendo being ignorant of the...well...ignorance of its new target audience.

Of course, I don't understand the reasoning they have for releasing such a weak strap in the first place. They would save a lot of face if their replacements were stronger.

"Of course, I don't understand the reasoning they have for releasing such a weak strap in the first place. They would save a lot of face if their replacements were stronger."

My point exactly!

CRECENTE MY FRIENDS AND I FIND YOUR CLAIMS THAT THE EARTH REVOLVES AROUND THE SUN HIGHLY DUBIOUS. NOBODY I KNOW CAN PROVE IT.
FURTHERMORE MY FRIEND SHIGGY SAYS NO STRAP CAN BREAK BECAUSE THEY ARE EACH IMBUED WITH THE POWER OF THE SIX GOLDEN STARS OF THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM AND NOT MADE AT 4 A.M. BY CHINESE KINDERGARTNERS.

Where do you see that they're giving free replacements? One of my straps broke (someone else playing, perhaps swinging a bit too hard, but what's the point of a wrist strap if it doesn't hold anyway... it's not like they're a professional tennis player or something, she's a normal 16 year old girl).

Anyway, do I need to call them, or is there a link?

One of my straps just broke. A friend came to try the Wii. During our second game of tennis, while he was wearing the strap, the Wiimote shot out of his hand and across the room as the broken strap dangled from his wrist. All it takes is one time...

I demand more info on this "free strap replacement"

"All it takes is one time..."

...and one idiotic friend.

"For example, in Wii Sports bowling, the proper way to let go of the ball while bowling is to release the "B" button on the Wii Remote--DO NOT LET GO OF THE Wii REMOTE ITSELF."

Oh, that is priceless.

"Nintendo has warnings in the manual, and in-game reminding people to wear the strap. If someone swings the Wiimote hard enough to break the strap, they are swinging it far too hard."

Yeah, but they have the warnings in there because they know that if they don't, the instant that someone does it (and you know someone will do it sooner or later), they get sued. That's why push-mower manuals will tell you not to pick it up and use it as a hedge-trimmer, and one chainsaw manual reportedly tells you not to rub it in your crotch. Never would have guessed that last one in a million years, but there you go. As a college friend of mine loved to say, consider how stupid the average person is. Now realize that fully half of the world is even more stupid than that. Scary thought, huh?

"I'm confused... what's the point of the wrist strap if not to "save" dropped Wii remotes? Why bother with it in the first place?"

It's more in line with a personal safety harness than with a surfboard tether. In the former case, it's for protection in case something goes horribly wrong. In the latter case, it's because you know you're going to lose your surfboard without it. Fling that Wiimote hard enough and the only thing that'll keep it from showing you its Superman impression is if you duct-taped it to your hand. Actually, gloves with the pockets to hold the controllers doesn't sound like a half-bad idea, though they'd need to be something that's safe to wash, cause leather would develop some serious funk after a few weeks of 10-12 hour gaming sessions.

The point is, the straps probably shouldn't be breaking this easily, but on the flip side they shouldn't be seeing this level of testing so soon after launch. The wrist-strap is not intended to be used as a means of whipping that Wiimote through a faster arc than you can pull off with your hand alone. And yet I have little enough faith in humanity to believe that at least one person out there has already tried this on purpose.

To summarize the warning Nintendo put out: Don't be a stupid fucker.

That's pretty easy to follow.

Pffft. The point of the strap is to prevent the remote from going any where it something DOES go wrong. That's a pitiful effort there, Nintendo.

I think the question is... if you're HOLDING onto the wiimote, how does the strap itself becomes so stressed that it breaks? There should be no force applied to it at all. It makes no sense.

The problem with the straps is that they aren't made for people to swing and let go of the Wii-mote like maniacs. It is intended if it slips so it doesn't fall, but not for you to play real tennis. People just blame it on elsewhere when the real problem is that 1) they don't hold it firmly 2)they don't RTFM 3)they aren't thinking that overusing it could mean that something snaps.
Just think about what you did wrong and if you really didn't do anything wrong than maybe you can blame someone else.

As for you Brian, sorry to hear you almost lost it because of the kids. Maybe you could show them the safety precautions :D

I want to know what fucking bulshit got in Kotaku's collective brains, about this whole stupid issue of breaking Wii straps.

A Wii is a games console. It's a complicated piece of electronics. Guess what happens when you're violent to it? That's right, things fucking break. If people are choosing to be complete fucking retards in the way they handle their console, that is their fault, NOT NINTENDO'S. The wrist strap is not there so you can swing the thing around like a mad ape. I've seen videos of wrist straps breaking, and the people in them have ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE.

As for those talking about kids being in danger, hey, if you teach your kid to act like a flailing idiot and throw shit around, maybe you have a problem (and then again, kids are always injuring themselves a tad and breaking stuff, so it's not like Nintendo making a reinforced iron wrist strap is going to ever prevent that).

I hope this whole "fad" going about the wrist strap quiets down, because otherwise I would seriously start to wonder what kind of pre-pubescent fucks keep bitching at a company due to their own stupidity.

@MagicMan

CALL MYTHBUSTERS!!!

I only see bad things in the future if retards...excuse me, Wiitards, continue to throw wiimotes. Just a matter of time until one of these brain trusts lets go of it and crowns a living person. Then they try to sue Ninty.

I say Ninty starts making super strong metal casings that go around your hands and controller to keep it in place. Or start making elastic or rubber straps so when you let go of it, the son of a bitch snaps back and cracks the moron in the forehead.