An essential aspect of the Nintendo Wii is obviously the sensor bar....without this wave goodbye to the motion sensing controls. It's the device that sits on top of your TV and picks up the movements you make as you wave your arms round like a maniac playing the latest Wii titles. Having a very slim TV however I always have issues balancing the bar on top of it and it frequently fell off until one day, after trying all sorts to figure out why my Wii wasn't working, I realised the sensor bar had given in so I popped down to Gamestation fully intent on getting the official sensor bar as the replacement.

However, priced at £3.99 in the corner was the 4gamers Wireless sensor bar. Now, the first thing that hit me was the fact that this was wireless. Perfect I thought maybe the lack of wire pulling at the back will solve my issues of it constantly falling down the back of the tv and of course be one less wire jumbled around my TV set. The one down side to this however.....yet more batteries. Coupled with the Wii mote batteries Id need a frequent supply of Duracell to keep these two running.

It takes 4 AAA batteries and goes through them quickly. I must only have gotten ten hours gaming before having to change them, and that was using the high quality Sony batteries which last much longer in the Wii Mote. Thats the major downside. I always have a good stream of rechargeables on the go anyway so its not too much of an issues but is worth considering.

There is also no warning sign meaning that the only way to see the batteries going is if your cursor starts to go on the screen or you feel it not responding which can be a tad annoying if in the middle of a game. It's a situation where you might need to keep changing and charging batteries every 2-3 times you play to stop this happening.

It certainly looks better than the official one with a silver and black combo. It sits nicely on top of the TV and is a nice weight with the batteries in. Its simple to set up and more importantly than everything else, responds just as well as the official one. Its less clutter, more portable and easier to store.

However, I don't think its an essential buy. They both do the same job and the only real difference is the lack of wires which is nullified by the excessive need for battery power.