You want another controller? Don't get it this way
At first, Wii Play plus the controller seems like a great deal. Since a controller costs $40, why not pay just an extra $10 to get a minigame collection with it? Is the collection of minigames in the package worth the extra $10? Disappointingly, no. Each one is worth playing maybe for five minutes once or twice, and that is about it. Quite simply, you are better off just buying the controller and leaving Wii Play on the shelf.
The concept of Wii Play is a good one. It includes ten minigames that act essentially as tech demos for the Wii-mote. Unfortunately, there is so little effort put into adding any depth to these minigames that the concept falls flat. In the Ping-pong game, you do nothing but move your controller left and right while the game tallies how many consecutive hits you get. There is no other nuance to it that you might find in a Ping-pong game. The pool game is a great idea too, but it ends up almost nothing like actual pool – it's as if the game was purposely gimped so that somebody else could make a full-priced pool game for the Wii. The fishing game is fun maybe once. The ostrich race minigame is interesting, but it also exposes how lousy the Wii-mote is for some uses that work a lot better on a traditional console controller. The tank shooting minigame is okay, but it is not evolved a lot beyond Atari 2600 combat, and it makes little use of the Wii's unique controls. I could go on, but I can't even remember what the other minigames are. None of them made much an impression.
The Wii is full of minigame shovelware at this point, and Wii Play does little to distinguish itself from the seemingly endless pile. The only reason why I haven't given this game a lower score is because it at least includes the Wii-mote. Here is my recommendation – if you want another Wii-mote, just buy the Wii-mote.
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