Since it's launch the Nintendo Wii has been branded a toy, only good for young children and families. While there are many great family games for the Wii, in my opinion the Wii can contend with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for gaming.

The Wii was the first home console to use motion control, and the Wii Remote and Nunchuk are very different to an Xbox or Playstation controller. Of course now Microsoft and Sony have released their own attempts to capitalise on the popularity of the Wii's motion control, with Kinect and Move.

As a Nintendo product the Wii has a library of great games such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda etc. While these games have bright, child-friendly graphics some of them can be quite fun and challenging, for example Super Mario Galaxy can be really frustrating if you are trying to get all of the Stars!

There are also some more hardcore, serious games for the console, including Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Monster Hunter and Red Steel.

An attachment, called the Wii Zapper, can be bought that transforms the Wii controller into a gun, and several games support this controller, from James Bond to Resident Evil. This means that while the Wii might not have the HD graphics of it's competitors, the Wii Zapper makes for a great First-Person-Shooter experience similar to those at the arcades. If you don't like the Wii Zapper some shooter games on the Wii support the Classic Controller, which is similar to the Xbox/Playstation controller. These games include Call of Duty and Goldeneye 007.

On the subject of the Classic Controller this can also be used for the downloadable Virtual Console games. These allow Wii owners to pay by debit/credit card or by voucher to download games from popular consoles such as the Super Nintendo, Sega Master System or Nintendo 64.

However, if you are a hardcore gamer who enjoys playing online above all, you will probably be disappointed with the Wii as Nintendo's online experience is slow and hobbled by child protection measures. The Xbox 360 would be a wiser choice for an online gamer. The Wii also has a basic internet browser, but you're better off with a PC for that. If you are looking for an all around media device the Wii is also probably a bad choice as it cannot play CDs, DVDs or Blu-Rays. It has a decent BBC iPlayer app, but the PS3 is the best media device as it has a Blu-Ray player, big hard drive and a similar iPlayer application.