I guess gamers like to watch people waving their arms around while playing video games.

A Nintendo television commercial for its new Wii video game system has become one of YouTube.com’s most-watched videos, having been viewed more than 800,000 times just 36 hours after the commercials were posted. The video has received 39 YouTube honors and is already the 14th "most linked" video in YouTube history.

Video game fans on the popular Kotaku.com video game blog also had high praise for the commercials:

* "They accomplish exactly what they set out to do: appeal to a more mainstream crowd."
* "They’re basically making the Wii out to be some crazy-ass (but crazy fun) martial art, which makes it feel all the much cooler to play."
* "I like it, it’s short, funky and to the point."


The commercials demonstrate Nintendo’s focus on hands-on sampling for Wii, which also extends to a 25-city "Wii Mall Experience." For the next two months, Nintendo has set up Wii kiosks at 25 Westfield shopping centers across the country.

At one mall in Southern California on Wednesday evening, people waited two and three deep at each kiosk. The diversity of the players was striking. On one system, a little boy played with his mom. At another, four 20-something men gathered around, while at yet another it was a couple of women in their late teens and early 20s. For a complete list of the participating malls, visit www.nintendo.com.

Nintendo’s remarkable new video game system goes on sale Nov. 19 at an MSRP of just $249.99 and comes packed with Wii Sports, a collection of five sports games.

For more information about Wii, please visit www.Wii.com.