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“Wii Sports” had my name written all over it, as it combines the 2 things I like best , mini games and free! Yup, that’s right “Wii Sports” is a collection of cartoonish bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing, and golf games that comes included with the “Nintendo Wii” system. I initially assumed that if it was included free of charge (the last time a game came free with system was circa 1991, with the “Super Nintendo”) that it would merely be an elaborate demo of what the Wii remote can do. Well, essentially that’s what it is, but gosh darn it – who cared, it was free! I also didn’t think it was entirely fair to give it too much leeway in terms of game play quality simply because it’s free, but realistically I couldn’t help but be giddy over the fact that we were getting 5 solid sports mini games for… free!
So after getting it, I quickly cleared a decent space from my couch and the T.V- I can’t stress enough how important it is to give yourselves adequate playing room trust me, spread out – you will swinging, and swaying, jabbing, and lunging more than you know. Any early awkwardness or clumsiness will quickly became an aggressive, aerobic, exercising experience just like playing the sports for real, and you will work up a sweat doing it
First things first before beginning the game, you will be prompted to design an avatar of yourself- a cartoon mini-self or Mii .This is created by selecting different face shapes, eyes, noses and hairstyles. This Mii will represent you from here on out ,within this game as well as how you will be viewed on the Wii console. You can construct an accurate model of yourself or a goofy caricature, hey, it’s your game you do what you want!
If you are not in the mood to design one the game will randomly make a generic one of you but please do take the time to customize, you will really be missing out on a neat element to this system- there is something so pleasing about seeing a virtual creation of yourself.
Now that you have your cute, little mini-mii, you are ready to strap on your remote, select a sport and jump right into the action! Although the Wii system comes with a Wii remote, you should go out and buy a 2nd remote (about $40), along with a nunchuk attachment (about $20). The Wii was designed to be a party system after all, and frankly what’s more annoying than having to keep unstrapping and passing the remote back and forth between one another? The nunchuk is needed in order to play the boxing mini game, not as essential, but hey it’s $20! and besides you got the “Wii Sports” for free!
Onto the games, out of all 5 games, I absolutely adored bowling, the simple reason being I ROCK at it! The remote motions were simple and realistic and make a great whoosh sound. It wasn’t long before I got really good at mastering spinning, and curving the ball, I was getting strikes like a pro, while the others were getting gutter balls. Ah well, we all got to be really good at something right?
My confidence level was short lived however, once I tried tennis. I am not saying that I completely sucked at it, but it is more challenging than bowling in the “pick and play” department. It’s all in the hand eye coordination and timing, so if your swing is good but you timed it wrong you will continually be hitting out of bounds. But as they say, practice makes perfect, as you begin to get the hang of it and master the form and timing it gets better and better. I reluctantly moved onto baseball,now the game of baseball has never been my field of dreams and was my least favorite. I was unimpressed-bored even. It is strictly pitching and hitting, you swing the remote as though it were a baseball bat over and over again for 9 innings. Everybody knows the best part of baseball is the yummy hotdogs anyway, take away that element and all you’re left with is – well baseball! YAWN.
Let’s get ready to rumble and play some Wii boxing, I was anxious to give my new nunchuk a whirl. You hold the remote in one hand and the nunchuk in the other and the punching motions are done by jabbing both controls in front of you towards the screen. Easy, peasy right? Well, that totally worked but the dodging and blocking motions didn’t hit their mark very well. The controls aren’t very responsive and I found the “behind the back” view of your avatar to be confusing and somewhat annoying. Bottomline: I got the @#$%&* kicked out of me!
Golf has got to be by far the quietest, calmest game of the bunch, (heck I’ll even be as bold as to say golf could very well be the quietest, calmest game on the planet!). There is not much in the physical activity department, in fact I would suggest that you save this one for last as you will probably need some cooling off time for awhile. You hold the remote with both hands the same way you hold a golf club and swing. Sidenote: Instead of the standard 18 holes version that has been done over and over again, I wish someone would come up with a miniature golf version of the sport, complete with a windmill and the clown at the end. Wouldn’t that be cool?
The graphics were clearly not meant to show off or "wow" us, in other words it’s nothing new or groundbreaking that couldn’t already be done on the “Gamecube”. I have a feeling the crude animations were intentional anyway- a “style” so to speak. I don’t mind it, I think it gives it a certain charm- and anyway who cares how the backgrounds looked- I was too busy watching (in awe) how cute my Mii looked.
So if you are looking to casually play “Wii Sports” for an hour or so, you will love this title but if you’re a hardcore type who wants a deeper, lengthier sports experience then you will find “Wii Sports” lacking. My hope is that Nintendo continues to develop future sports games like snowboarding, basketball or archery- Yes, archery is a sport!
Get Your Wii Here
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Posted by oxyjen on Dec 6, 2006
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