If you’ve been a bit too free n’ easy with your Wii Remote this last Wiik (sorry) you just might have found out the hard way that string fixing the wrist strap to the Wii Remote is a tad flimsy.

Indeed, so feeble is this teeny-tiny twine that a small number of, shall we say, over-exuberant gamers worldwide have been inadvertantly flinging their Remotes out of the window, into the telly screen/cat/mate’s face etc when they let go of the Remote and wrist strap string snapped. We know of at least one website dedicated to just such mishaps.

Anyway stories abound this morning regarding a supposed total recall of the wrist straps. The BBC seems to have started this ball of confusion rolling, with a report based on an evidently erroneous statement made by Nintendo’s Yasuhiro Minegawa. As the Beeb and various other sources have it there’s going to be a complete worldwide recall of the straps and that this may affect up to 3.2 million units sold across the globe. However, Nintendo Europe reckons it’s nothing of the sort...

According to our chap on the inside Minegawa-san has been drastically misquoted and no such recall is taking place. This is further backed up on the US official site (www.nintendo.com) where a customer services announcement gives details on how worried/clumsy consumers can replace their wrist straps for the slightly beefier model if they so wish (the string is now 0.4mm thicker!). The same statement is already up on the official Japanese site and will be published on Nintendo Europe’s site soon. Hmmm, so that’s a world away from the complete product recall that everyone was in such a rush to report this morning.

In summary, then, if you’re at all concerned, especially sweaty of palm, don’t know your own strength or are among the minuscule minority in Europe to have suffered wrist-strap string-related mishaps keep an eye on www.nintendo.co.uk for more information. The rest of you just take it easy with the Remote will ya. Sheesh!