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Nintendo’s pack-in was a great choice. Wii Sports is collection of simplified versions of tennis, baseball, golf, boxing and bowling that make use of the Wii Remote for all of the game’s actions. While not the most in-depth versions of these sports by far, Wii Sports does manage to drive home Nintendo’s appeal to casual gamers with the Wii.
As I mentioned above, Wii Sports reduces its respective games into the simplest forms possible. In tennis, the game will move your characters for you allowing you to focus on returning the ball. You simply swing the Wiimote left or right for a forehand or backhand swing or swing the remote up to serve as if you were using an actual tennis racket. You do have some control over where the ball goes depending on the speed and movement of your swing. In baseball you simply focus on batting and pitching. When batting you hold the Wiimote upright like a real baseball bat and swing at the ball at the appropriate time. Pitching is a bit more involved since your movement will determine the speed of your pitch and the game lets you throw splitters, screwballs and curveballs by holding down a button before you pitch.
Golf and boxing are a bit more involved than tennis and baseball. In golf, the Wiimote emulates a golf club so you’ll have to pull it back and then forward to swing. How quickly you do this determines how hard you hit the ball and thereby how far it will go. The game lets you know how hard you’re hitting with an onscreen power meter. The power meter is divided into sections and these corresponds to where the ball will go so you have a pretty good idea of how hard to hit the ball to get the shot you want. Boxing is the only game that also uses the Nunchuk peripheral. Basically the Nunchuk and Wiimote represent your two fists and you move them naturally to dodge, punch and block. It’s definitely the most physically intensive game in the Wii Sports package since you’ll actually have to throw all of the punches that your character is throwing.
Bowling has the most wrinkles out of all of the Wii Sports games. In this game, the Wiimote emulates a bowling ball so you’ll have to hold it in front of you and do the typical bowling motion to launch the ball successfully. Bowling comes the closest to emulating an actual game of bowling, too. You can move your character and change your ball angle. You’ll also have to keep in mind that any wrist movements will translate to the game so you need a steady hand.
While the games are simple, it can take some practice to become good at them. Nintendo wisely included a training mode which lets you practice different aspects of the game to get a better handle at them. Additionally, the game includes a daily fitness test which has you completing a random mix of training challenges. Another cool feature of Wii Sports is that it uses your Mii, the avatars that you can create on the Wii. The use of the Miis really sets the tone for the game’s graphics, which are cute and stylish but not technically dazzling. The environments are also stylish but also simple in architecture and textures. The sound package is just as competent and the game manages to make good use of the Wiimote’s speaker to enhance the game.
Wii Sports is the perfect pack-in for the Wii since it really shows off the system’s unique capabilities and manages to draw in casual gamers who would otherwise not want to play videogames. Even if it wasn’t free the game would be a recommended purchase. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jan 25, 2007
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