Wii Sports

Posted June 2, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

What do you get by combining five sports, personalised characters and the wireless wiimote? A crazy partygame which will keep you and your friends occupied for hours. Clear the floor from tables and chairs, make sure to put on the wrist wrap tightly, we’re doing sports here!

Since Wii Sports is given free with the console, for many it will be the first experience with the wireless controller. The game combines five sports disciplines that teach the player to handle the possibilities of the controller. We’re talking tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. Don’t expect perfect simulators as every game has special rules.

Doing the sports is by using the controller like holding a sports attribute in a real life environment, being a tennis racket or a golf club. The characters are the Mii from the console, or those saved on a wiimote. If you decide to save your character on such a remote, you can take him/her along to friends to take on others with your own profile. Very simple but a nice given.

Tennis is without a doubt the top game of Wii Sports and finds its success in its simplicity. You don’t have to do more than hit the ball, although you do need to take into account the direction and time of swaying. You can of course not expect everything to go by itself. The difference between a backhand and forehand is mostly well detected, but lobs and smashes a bit less. You can choose to play a single game, best of three, or best of five. A small downpoint is that you can’t choose to play a full set, and we’re always talking about playing a double. Tennis supports up to four players simultaneously.

The second game, baseball, is also a bit simpler than in reality. You either need to throw or bat the virtual ball. Three strikes before a player is out and three outs make the teams change place. The longer it takes before a ball is captured, the more honks the Mii’s will progress. Hitting the ball isn’t as simple as you may think though. Not only do you have to hit at the right time, it also has to be hard enough. Otherwise, it will immediately be caught and the player will be out. Ever heard the stories about Wiimotes kissing the TV screen? Well, they happened during a game of baseball. For some throwing the ball is the same as throwing the controller it seems. You can play baseball with two players.

Sceptics, don’t start nagging, with bowling you’ll conquer the heart of any woman. No blabbering that the balls are too heavy, no nagging about the drinks costing too much. Give your girlfriend, mother or grandma a controller in their hand and let her do a couple of throws. The throwing itself isn’t that hard, but often the ball will make a strange curve at the end of the lane. The game doesn’t give an option to alter the weight of the ball nor its color. An option to do some personalisation wouldn’t have hurt. With one Wiimote up to four players can have fun here.

For those that like to play a bit more relaxed golf may be a suggestion. The necessary force for the swing (the amount of arm movement) is simply shown with a power bar on screen. By comparing this with the bird view you can deduct where the ball will land at which strength. Don’t forget to calculate in the wind and the ground as they will make it easier or more difficult. Also here you can play with up to four with the same controller.

Boxing is the most active game of all five and only becomes fun when playing with two. Only the fun gets torn down a bit by the bad interpretation of the moves. Often the game won’t correctly detect whether you’re doing a high or low punch which makes a game of boxing more swaying your arms than actual boxing. Also the wire between the Wiimote and the nunchuck tends to get in the way.

Next to these five titles, the game also has a practice and fitness part. Daily each character can do a fitness test which contains three parts from the practice mode. A score with your estimated physical age is kept on a graphic. In exercices you’ll also find some fun extras like a bowling game with no less than 91 cones or practice for returns in tennis.

Wii Sports is without a doubt the most sportive game on the market and for some even the only form of movement. That not all games are equally perfect was to be expected, but they’re good enough to make this game one hell of a party title. The only thing you still need to do is get that second controller.

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