Wii to Feature Voice-Recognition?

Chalk this up in the Rumor column for the time being, but the latest gossip making its way across the Web is that the Wii, which will already feature a built-in microphone on its "Wii-mote" controller, might also have some nifty voice-recognition features. While we're not entirely sure how this will translate to the games themselves, I for one don't see this technology being used too extensively in "normal" Wii games.

Though, it would be fun to be able to tell Samus to "pwnzer all n00bz" rather than having to shoot them all manually, I suspect that the function's primary use will either be outside of games altogether (in applications like the Wii Web Browser where it might be easier to speak URLs than use the Wiimote to type them) or in specialized games build around the technology (like a Nintendogs). We'll have to wait and see whether this turns out to be true, but with all the other weird control schemes that the Wii offers, one more shouldn't hurt, right?

[via Moz La Punk]