Saturday 9 November 2013

Review No. 63 Wii Sports - Wii (7+)

Strong Points:
Good range of sports
Variety of gameplay
Easier to pick up but challenging to master
Innovative controls
Multiplayer is amazing
Tennis and Bowling are amazing
Baseball is great
Boxing is good (when it works)
Training mode is fun for single player

Weak Points:
Golf is awful
Simple, not detailed graphics
Sometimes unresponsive controls
Not much depth
Single Player is not as fun as multiplayer

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:
North America: November 19, 2006
Japan: December 2, 2006
Australia: December 7, 2006
Europe: December 8, 2006

Controls:
Different for each sport but mostly motion controls. Detailed controls in-game

This game is a revolution. It inspired anyone from hardcore gamers to people who don't know their PS3's to their PC's and made them pick up a Wii Remote and play with their friends and family. This game in turn created an entirely new genre of people - casual gamers - for consoles. Not bad for a game which was free with the Wii in America and Europe!

Before I get into the specifics of each game here is some general stuff. There is good variety to the games and they are all easy to pick up and pleasingly hard to master. This is added to by the fact that you have Pro Levels and Fitness Test. Pro Level is when you get 1000 points (added/subtracted to you at the end of each session). You get a cosmetic change in bowling and boxing as well as a message on the Wii Fitness Test, however, is for the 'casual gamers' and consists of two tests from two of the games training modes (randomly selected). Once you complete these tasks then you get a level from 0-100 with 0 being the best. This can only be done twice per day.

Training mode is good to play in single player so that you can upgrade your skills while the actual games are for multiplayer. Each game has innovative controls really showing the Wii's capabilities and while they may not be the most accurate are really fun to play with other people. However, playing single player really isn't as fun and shows that the game is primarily for the 'casual gamer' and so doesn't have much depth past pro levels for the hardcore gamer.

The graphics are good for the fact that they don't attract your attention away from the actual game but are not very impressive with low levels of detail and textures. Also, while some of the games feel like proper fleshed out games (tennis), some of them feel rushed with bad controls and gameplay (golf). I'm not saying any of the games are bad but just that some are just not good enough compared to the others.

 Now for the actual games. Tennis is the first one and in my opinion the best. You can choose between single and double matches as well as the number of games. You can play 1 VS COM, 2 VS 2, 3 VS 1 and 4 (battle against yourself). You can do a number of trick shots and power serves with friends and family or computers of varying skill levels.

Baseball is next. You can serve and bat the ball with other Miis created on the Wii (and guest Miis if there aren't enough) being your team. These games tend to take quite a long time and is one of the few games on Wii Sports which is as fun on single player as it is on multiplayer.

Now it's bowling. Bowling allows you to play normal ten-pin, ten-turn matches with friends or on your own to master the game. Bowling is one of only two games in Wii Sports which has a cosmetic change when you hit Pro Level. This cosmetic change is a new ball with stars on it allowing you to brag to your friends.

Golf is in my opinion the worst game in Wii Sports. The multiplayer is not nearly as fun as the other games and literally lets you take turns when playing the holes. Now while this is the same as bowling, bowling is a two-minute game while golf is ten. This makes it boring to wait and with clunky controls, not much fun to play either. While the other games are served to you in bite-sized chunks which appeal to 'casual gamers' this one is a full 9-hole game which I feel is too long.

Boxing is last and is a bit different to the rest. It is firstly the only game on Wii Sports which requires and uses the Wii Nunchuck accessory. While putting on the Nunchuck sometimes interrupts the flow of the game especially if you have misplaced it, keep going as this is a good game. You can play solo (which is actually quite fun) or multiplayer against another person. This game gives you a virtual fighting ground to work out all those arguments with siblings by beating each other up but not actually getting hurt. Which is a bonus. However, the controls are sometimes unresponsive allowing the computer to easily knock you out.

Conclusion: overall this game is a revolution, much like the console it is played on. With a little more depth and a few more games this game could have been absolutely spectacular. Being the bestselling game of all time isn't bad either.

Rating: 90%

Thanks for reading, Satamer.

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