Nintendo Wii - Wii Sports Recommended

Format
Nintendo Wii
Publisher
Nintendo
Developer
Nintendo
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Sports

Wii Sports

By David Rasmussen
16th Jun 07

I won’t be terribly long on this review, because there is not much to be said about this game.
Wii Sports, for Wii players one and all, was your first exposure to the Wii and it’s wonderful world.
Sure, sure, if you bought certain bundle packs odds are you also got The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess to start you off, but for the most part Wii Sports is how you first got into your Wii.

The thing is this, however, Wii Sports is not a loner game… that’s what Zelda is for.
Wii Sports is the kind of game that might seem to appeal to any number of players, but it’s true charm (and it’s true worth) comes when the game invites more than one player to partake in it’s few options. Then then game will hit it’s mark with players as it is the first multiplayer game you’ll keep coming back to over and over again.

The game sports five modes of play (five sports) with participants varying from 2 to 4 players. One mode, Boxing, offers the use of the nunchuk (more on that later). There is also a practice mode and the more important Fitness mode. Yes, I am sure at some point you heard that somebody somewhere claimed to once lost 9 pounds playing nothing by Wii games… well, that may not be an exaggeration in fact (seeing how you’ll get quite abit of movement playing Wii games), so what better way to prove your first Wii game is healthy by adding a Fitness monitor to it. This mode sets you to task by measuring your ability (in a rather TriForce shaped scale of three ability measurements) by making you play Baseball, Bowling and Tennis. Once that is done the game takes the measurements from the tasks set (hit x amount of home runs out of 10 tries, hit the ball back inbounds and knock down x amount of pins in one try) and then setting an assigned “age” at the end. 20 is good, above that is bad… right now I’m tethering between middle to not so middle age between 30-50ish in years… that can’t be good.

NOTE - Mind you if you heard the story about the young kid losing 9 pounds it might not have been using the Fitness mode of this game to measure progress, as even the game’s instructions imply that only adults should use this mode since it only measures down to 20, insufficient to gauge the fitness of younger than 20 year olds.

There are five games. Boxing is the only one that requires both the use of the nunchuk and the Wiimote. This isn’t the most addictive game, but playing it shows you the promise a future Wii version of Fight Night Round 4 can bring once it is Wii-fied.

The rest are simplified cutesy up versions of sports that just give you an excuse to use your Miis (the only other game out now that provides you a chance to take your Miis out to play is Wii Play, for 1 to 2 players).

Wii Baseball is a simplified version of Baseball. There are more complex baseball sims out there, go get those if you want a real baseball experience. If not you and one other person can take turn hitting the ball and throwing the ball, and not much else. I thought I once saw early advertising showing players pumping their arms up and down to make their Mii run bases, but apparently that isn’t the case as it’s not present in this version (running is decided by how long it takes for rival players to secure the ball, the farther it goes and the longer it takes the more bases will be run).

Wii Golf is not the best way to find out whether or not you’re going to be able to stomach the challenge of Super Swing Golf. In fact it may turn you off from golf on the Wii altogether. Trust me, it’s best to play Super Swing Golf if you want to see if you’re going to be able to stomach Super Swing Golf (for me it’s the overtly sexy female characters and the ability to dress some in as little clothing as possible).
Otherwise golf on the Wii is only for the die hard and those who want an experience like Hot Shots Golf but on the Wii, this won’t endear you to golf on the Wii by a long shot.

The last two, Wii Tennis and Bowling, will take up the most time as they are both 4 player games and both addictive. Tennis is the more athletic of the two, but bowling requires a great deal of skill and practice to excel making it an addictive habit even on single player.

Otherwise, however, Wii Sports is your first “party” game meant to get people together to Wii together.
Single players should find other games (sports or otherwise) to occupy your times as you can only bowl so much per day before you tire of bowling.

Wii Sports gets 4 sports endorsements out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 16th Jun 07

Nintendo Wii Wii Sports Images