When games consoles first came onto the market there was a clear distinction between them and PCs: all you did was slot in your cartridge, cassette or disk and you played your game. PCs were for more serious matters and largely for the adults to use. Now all the lines are blurred and PCs are used for astonishing online and solo games while games consoles can access your e-mails and play movies.

Nintendo's Wii console is one of the newest kids on the block and because it can be used for exercise and for surfing the Web as well as for gaming, X-OOM has decided to steal a lead on the opposition by releasing software to convert your Wii into a Media Centre, capable of displaying photos and movies from your PC as well as playing audio tracks.

Once the initial installation was completed, we were advised that an update was available but when we tried to install it, an error message popped up. This happened every time we opened the software and was a warning sign of what was to come. Yes, be prepared if you want to shell out your hard-earned dosh for this program, as in our tests it threw up more bugs than a David Attenborough documentary.

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A case in point is the Help menu, which is normally a perfect place to start if you want the whole process detailed for you. It looks pretty thorough, just so long as you speak Italian... Now that's just sloppy. When you move on to the main interface, it looks more hopeful as it clearly lists all the media you'd hope to collate for playback via the Wii, including photos, videos, Web Radio, Web TV, Podcasts and RSS feeds.

All that's required is to highlight the folder you want to copy from in each genre and the software will sort it all for you. We chose a music folder that had MP3 and WMA files in it and ticked the relevant formats in the menu. The result was a considerable wait, only to discover that only the WMA files had been transferred.

We tried again with just the MP3 box ticked and had the same result. In the end, the only way we could do it was by manually adding every MP3 file one by one, which is no fun if you have, say, 1,000 tracks. Also, DivX files are apparently supported but there's no check box visible for them and it didn't recognize ours.

The bigger the folder size, the longer (and we mean MUCH longer) you have to wait for transfer, and after a while the whole system crashed. Repeatedly.

If by some miracle you do finally get everything copied and ready to go, you then have to connect either by cable or wirelessly with your Wii and then access the Wii Internet Channel (which will cost you 500 points if you haven't already got it installed). Only then can you use the Wii controller to scroll through the relevant menus to see your media.

Was it worth the agony? Sound quality and Web radio quality were reasonable but moving pictures were jittery and still pictures showed only average clarity.

Our review copy was a shocking example of unfinished, bug-strewn software that should never have been let out on the high street. You'd do better to buy an HD widescreen monitor and play your media back directly from the PC, bypassing the Wii altogether.