With the Wii due to launch here on December 7 at $399, Nintendo hit the road last week with some hands-on demonstrations.

Based on the games that Nintendo is shipping in the unit itself (some 20 or so other titles will also be available), it looks like there will be some decidedly non-couch-potato action.

At face value, the Wii is a lot smaller, lighter and plainer than first imagined.

Indeed, take it out of its upright cradle (in which it is usually pictured) and lay it flat and it is hard to distinguish from a generic disk drive.

Ports for television connections and older GameCube controllers are hidden away behind small panels.

The Wii's own controllers look like, and are the same shape and size, as those on the average television remote.

Pairing them with the console is a simple matter of pressing a button on either device.

Then the gyrations start.

The big talking point about the Wii is its wireless, motion-sensitive controller, which certainly lives up to the hype.

Using a sensor bar fitted to the front of whatever display screen you're using to keep track of its movement, the Wii controller is surprisingly sensitive and accurate in following movements.

One demo application had small 10-second challenges -- such as dancing with a hula hoop, balancing a tennis racket or drinking a glass of wine -- which showed how versatile the controller could be and had the users contorting their bodies to keep up.

Nintendo itself will bundle five sports games with the Wii: tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing.

Tennis, for example, works well with the controller, used as you would a racket, with the game responding to lobs, forward shots, backhands and even spin.

Boxing, in addition to the main controller, also uses another (supplied) unit dubbed a Nunchuck by Nintendo. With the controller in one hand and the Nunchuck in the other, the game realistically recreates boxing movements and action.

These games are played using adjustable avatars known as Miis. Although these are very geometric figures they can be personalised to an amazing degree and can be carried from one Wii console to another via the controller.

These geometric, almost bobble-headed Miis, as well as the simple almost button-free controller, underline Nintendo's effort to market the Wii as a console for non-core gamers, from pre-teens to grannies.

Also part of this strategy will be an effort to make the console the focus of a series of always-on online data channels, offering access to games updates, a Wii shop and services such as weather and news channels. A lot will, of course, depend on the variety of third-party games that appear for the console.

Nintendo a track record of supporting games with broad appeal.

With Wii, it appears to have produced a platform to take this tradition into the next round of gaming console wars.