Ahead of the launch (and immediate sell-out) of Wii on December 8th Nintendo has just announced a lengthy tour in which genuine members of the unwashed British public will be able to get actual hands-on experience of the console.

The tour kicks off on November 10th (next Friday!) and runs up until January 13th, taking in over 60 locations and events across the UK and Ireland. Nintendo say that it’s their biggest ever ‘sampling exercise’ and reckon that they’ll expose the Wii to around one million rabid punters along the way, which we don’t doubt for an instant.

Venues/events confirmed so far include Bluewater Shopping Centre, the Birmingham Bullring, Sheffield’s Meadow Hall, The Good Food Show, Ideal Home Exhibition and Glasgow’s Irn Bru Carnival, where the combination of Wii and caffeinated soft drinks a-plenty will be a sight to behold! Full tour details will be posted at wii.nintendo.co.uk, although they weren’t there when we looked. Keep an eye out for in-store activity in the coming weeks too.

Meanwhile Nintendo Japan is planning a tour of its own. It’s smaller in the sense that it only visits the enormo-metropolises of Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo. But much larger in that it includes the following titles:

- Wii Sports
- Hajimete no Wii: Your First Step To Wii (possibly Wii Play?)
- Odoru Made in Wario
- Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Pokemon Battle Revolution
- Excite Truck
- Yawaraka Atama Juku (a gentle brain-training game)
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Fire Emblem
- Mario Strikers Charged
- Mario Party 8
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
- Hajime no Ippo - The Fighting! Revolution
- Call of Duty 3
- Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
- Trauma Center
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
- GT Pro Series
- Need For Speed Carbon
- Elebits
- Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
- Necro-Nesia
- Bleach
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
- Sonic and the Secret Ring
- Cooking Mama:
- Densha de Go! (dull train simulator alert!)
- Furu Furu Park
- Swing Golf Pangya
- Sudoku
- Wing Island
- Kororinpa
- Bomberman Land Wii
- Tsuri Master (Hudson)
- SD Gundam: Scud Hammers
- Ennichi no Tatsujin (a collection of mini games)
- Tamagotchi
- Dragon Ball Z Sparking! NEO
- One Piece Unlimited Adventure
- Crayon Shin-Chan
- Harvest Moon
- The Dog Island
- Monster 4X4: World Circuit
- Rayman Rabbids Party
- Red Steel

Needless to say that it's unlikely we'll be seeing anything like this number of titles on our own tour. Butyou never know, and we’re not complaining really. Well, not much. Keep an eye on wii.nintendo.co.uk for more tour details soon.