Top 12 gifts for Wii owners

The thing with the Wii is less about identifying 12 of the best accessories as avoiding the teeming legions of rubbish ones.

It seems like everyone's had a crack at moulding white plastic into funny shapes you can then pop a Wiimote into.

Here, however, are a few of the ones which are genuinely worth cracking open that much-abused Christmas wallet for...

1. The House Of The Dead: Overkill Hand Cannon, £11

There's no shortage of pretend guns on the Wii, but there's only one that's called a Hand Cannon. It may be officially designed for the House of the Dead, but it'll give you that oh-so-macho Dirty Harry look with any shooting or lightgun Wii game.

2. Speedlink Contact-Free Wii Remote Charger, £35

The fiddliness of recharging Wii remotes has always been a little at odds with the Everything Is Easy nature of the console and its games. This, from Play.com, takes the hard work out of it - a tray that surrounds two remotes with an induction field rather than requiring you connect 'em in a certain spot. Best of all, this means there's no need to remove silicon skins, nunchucks, Motion Pluses and the like. Just drop the lot onto the tray and leave it to it.

3. 4Gamers Wireless Sensor Bar, £3.75

For a console that's all about being wireless, that thin, trailing cable to the sensor bar sure is ugly. This bizarrely cheap wireless replacement may require a meaty six AA batteries, but it'll make the space underneath your telly a whole lot neater.

4. Pair & Go Vibrating Wheel, £10

Vibration can be a pointless gimmick, but it's in racing games that it really proves its worth - it gives a sense that you really are trying to throw several tons of protesting metal around. The infinite crowd of clip-on wheel accessories thus fall short - without vibration, you really are just waving a plastic disc in the air. This battery-powered one vibrates angrily once you rotate it past a certain point, adding just a dash more gritty reality to, er, Mario Kart and the like.

5. Logitech Cordless Keyboard, £22

Make the best of the Wii's surprisingly powerful web browser with this mid-sized, colour-coordinated keyboard. It's not simply a PC keyboard slightly tweaked - buttons you'd never realistically use on the Wii are removed to keep the thing dainty. It's also handy for typing out in-game chat messages, as it works concurrently with a Wiimote.

6. Mad Catz Official Rayman Raving Rabbids Dual Charger, £29

Either absurdly cute or just a little bit frightening - depending on where you stand - check out this tribute to Ubisoft's mad bunnies, accidental unofficial mascots for the Wii. This plastic statuette charges two Wiimotes at once in the Rabbid's hands, and its crazed, staring eyes indicate the level of charge.