The Doctor might be able to fight Daleks and Cybermen with his trusty TARDIS, but it's his Sonic Screwdriver that really makes him the master of all things. The Time Lord's mystical tool can do everything from break locks to seal doors. But now it can also manipulate the Wii.
The BBC is releasing a Sonic Screwdriver-shaped remote accessory for the Wii in conjunction with the new Doctor Who video games, which will be released this October. The remote, made by Blue Ocean Accessories (the hardware arm of games publisher Koch Media), will be bundled with both the Doctor Who: Return to Earth for Wii and the DS-based Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth. It will also be available separately as a sonic screwdriver stylus and a slip case featuring the Doc and his leggy companion Amy Pond.
Using the remote, players can explore a huge space ship as either the Doctor or Miss Pond. The games require you to aim and fire sonic beams at coloured targets dotted around levels, which move platforms, turn on and off hazards and open doors. There's even fully recorded dialogue from the real stars of the show, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, to help you on your way.
But if you don't want to take on the evil Daleks and their ilk with your Wii, then a regular game of doctor who wii remote might actually help improve your laparoscopic surgery skills, according to a study published this week in PLOS ONE. A team of researchers at Italy's Sapienza University found that surgeons who played the Nintendo Wii three times a week for four weeks performed significantly better than their non-gaming counterparts during actual surgery, despite having low levels of both video game and laparoscopic experience.
