Nintendo Wii gaming consoles have been flying off retailer shelves, and now the Wii controllers are literally flying around gamers’ living rooms. The Wii is famous for its innovative, motion-detecting remote control that lets gamers wave their arms to play a game instead of throttling a joy stick. Some enthusiastic gamers, however, have discovered that twirling the controller by its strap achieves optimum results…until the strap gives way and the controller becomes a plastic guided missile.

Gaming blogs began to report the problem some time ago, and in late November Nintendo actually added a safety precaution page to its web site exhorting gamers to “Hold the Wii Remote firmly and don’t let go!”

Now, the blog Wii Have a Problem reports that “Nintendo has announced that they are investigating the possibility of a stronger strap to take care of over zealous players.”

In a press conference yesterday, in fact, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata conceded that “Some people are getting a lot more excited than we’d expected. We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.”

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