Review: Wii Sports - 25/03/2008 by Michael
Sports
Wii Sports is the game that lauched the Wii, so basically it is a showcase of the Wii's revolutionary motion tracking control. The game itself is incredibly simple, it is 5 mini games, Boxing, Bowling, Baseball, Golf and Tennis. Each one of these is highly entertaining and a couple even have a bit of longevity. The first thing that really surprises is how instinctive the controls are to use. Even the biggest noob with no gaming experience will be able to pick up the control and get it right in just a couple of minutes, as the movements are just like in real life. How handy, no need to do the real thing ever again. However over time you will learn the trigger movements for each sport and will not need to do the entire movement, but just a minor flick of the wrist. It seems gamers will do anything to get out of physical activity.
The first game most people move towards is tennis, as it is good single player or with friends and in addition the training is challenging and fun. Tennis is great as with some practice you will be able to control topspin or backspin and the angle of the shot depending on how early or late you swing and your follow through, sounds like tennis eh! The computer difficulty starts at retarded, as in crazy air swings and moves up to pro, where they hit almost everything back really hard. But before long even that won't stop you winning every point and having a rank that is off the chart, literally.
Next up is some golf. Great for a group, even if you only have one control. This game will give you all the same reactions as golf as well, you swear and swing you clubs around in disgust at your crap shot. But when you get it right it is super sweet. There are 9 holes, 3 easy, 3 normal and 3 hard and to get a solid round will take you a fair bit of concentration as minor mistakes can send you out of bounds. For the perfectionist gamer golf can be a trap, as the perfect round always seems so close, but then the wind changes and you can't hit the shortcut... I digress.
Then to baseball, it is pretty straight forward, pick the right pitch and time your swing to send the ball out of the park, and then press a few buttons to design your pitch and then throw your arm out of joint. I believe the safety strap was designed specifically for this game. Now this starts off pretty easy and you think you own the game then the computer steps it up and you can hardly hit a ball. The computer pitcher can be seriously good, changing up speed and direction, you find yourself trying to predict whats coming but you never can. Health and saftey warning: You can seriously hurt your elbow with all the repetitve rapid extensions. If this happens play a different game for a while then get back to it.
Bowling is pretty damn sweet as well, as the control on the spin of the ball is very accurate once you are accoustemed to the control. Again the training is really enjoyable, especially bowling at 100 pins, or the spin control exercises. But it is the elusive 300 that drives you on, well that or laughing in your friends faces when you beat them. A few things for you to try is to throw the ball onto the next lane and knock down those pins, and on the final power bowling training with the 100 pins roll the ball all the way down the divider to knock down all the pins.
Lastly and most disappointingly is Boxing. Boxing is fun to start with as you throw a flurry of punches and get random results, which is good for a laugh, but when you want to develop some accuracy and control the sensors and controls aren't up to it. Even after doing all the training it is neary impossible to get the computer to recognise what you really want to do. This is a great shame as the concept of Wii boxing was the best of the lot. Moving your body shifts your ring position, the height and direction of your hands directs the punches. Sounds great but just not quite there yet. Perhaps with time a new boxing game will be developed and this concept brought to fruition. Till then play the other games.
So the verdict is that the game is good for single player or multi, has good longevity and showcases the Wii's abilites. Not a bad start for the Wii.