A Cheap $10 Cash in that Happens to be Packed in With a Wiimote
Wii Play is probably the first game you get for your Wii when you pick it up. This is because it is packed in wit the Wii mote. Now, I wouldn't call this game good by any stretch of the imagination, but it probably isn't bad enough to pass up for just a plain Wii remote. On the flip side, though, there are many other $10 video games out there that are much better than this one, such as various WiiWare, Playstation Network, and Xbox Live Arcade games, and even used PS2 or Xbox games.
Wii Play consists of 9 games, all of which can be played single player or multiplayer. And I must point out, this game is very tedious and boring without a friend. You won't have much fun without some one to play with. I also can't guarantee you'll have fun with a friend either. The games don't really have any theme whatsoever, unlike Wii Sports. It's kind of funny, actually. There are some sports games in it(pool, tennis and fishing are sports, right?), which makes you wonder why they weren't included in the game with sports in the title. It feels like Nintendo had all these games made, and they said, "Alright, which ones are we gonna put in?" From positioning you Mii in a floating tensil, to playing pool, to fighting tanks, it just feels like all the games were randomly picked and put on the disc.
The 9 games are:
-Shooting Range
-Find Mii
-Table Tennis
-Pose Mii
-Laser Hockey
-Fishing
-Billiards
-Charge!
-Tanks!
Shooting Range
One of the best (and nostalgic) games in Wii Play, is Shooting Range. It closely resembles the NES classic Duck Hunt. Sadly, in the time I played it, I didn't see the dog. It really is just duck hunt in better graphics with motion controls. The game is based on rounds. As you play longer, the rounds get harder each time. Early in the game, rounds one and two, you will just shoot circular targets on the screen. Later, you'll run into targets with your Mii's face on them, reducing points if you shoot them. In the later rounds you will shoot birds, cans, discs, and even aliens.
Find Mii
This is one of those weird ones that feel like it was just thrown in there. Here's how it works. So, you use your Wiimote to point at certain Miis the game tells you to find. The Miis you must find have a big range. Anyway, the game randomly generates, or so it seems, a bunch of different Miis on the screen, either walking, running, swimming, standing, and whatever else.. It will ask you to find one of them. Sometimes it will say "Find the odd Mii out". This means you'll have to find a Mii that is doing something different different that the other Miis. Others are "Find two alike Miis". This means you need to find two Miis that look alike. Others will have you find yourself, which will generate and identical copy of your Mii, which isn't too hard by the way, there's not a whole lot of Mii combinations, and puts it into the crowd, having you find it.
The "Find Mii" game is pretty fun at first with a friend, racing to click on the required Miis with your Wiimote, but it will get old really quick.
Table Tennis
There isn't a whole lot to say about table tennis. It controls just like you think it would. Move your Wiimote around and when ever the ping pong ball gets near push it forward. When you are serving, the A button bounces the ball off of the table, then you swing just like normal to hit it.
Pose Mii
Another one of the "random" games put into Wii Play. In this game, you will be treated to some interesting music and background effects. You use your Wiimote to pose your mii and move and rotate him/her to fill in the color-outlined tinsels that float around the screen. This is probably hard to picture, but basically it's shape filling. You Mii will make a weird pose and you'll have to make him do that pose and then put your Mii over the tinsel.
Laser Hockey
"Laser Hockey" is a Pong clone. That's it. I can't really say more. You know what pong is, right? Well, it's that. With lasers. This may seem lazy, but that's exactly what it is, and I can't really say more. The only difference is it leans a little towards air hockey too, only having a small space you can get your "puck" through, and having free movement of you... laser. First one to 8 wins. It's the same game you played for many years, it's one of the most addicting concept in video games, and it's still fun as hell in Wii Play.
Fishing
"Fishing" is just as boring as most of the other games in Wii Play, with a few exceptions. You use You Wiimote to move your fishing rod around the water, until you feel your Wiimote rumble, then you yank up. If you timed it perfectly, you will yank your fish up. Each fish is worth a certain amount of points. Occasionally, a special fish will appear in the corner of the screen, indicating a fish worth more points than most of the others is in the water.
Billiards
"Billiards" has the opportunity to be the best Wii Play game, but there is one huge flaw with it that just blows my mind. You must hit a certain ball. Yes, a certain ball. Meaning the game will but a big fat number on the screen and unless you hit that ball into the hole, it won't count. Now, the stripes and solid thing isn't even there. Just let us hit whatever we want. This is far from real pool.
Charge!
"Charge!" has you on a bull running a track, trying to avoid rails and fences on your way. You will be tempted to run into targets set throughout the course. This is another game that starts out pretty fun, but in the end it just winds up boring and just plain not fun at whatsoever. You flip the Wiimote on it's side, controlling the right to left movements of your bull, and pushing forward can will make it go faster, and pulling back will put the brakes on. You can make the bull jump over obstacles by making and upward motion with your Wiimote.
Tanks!
"Tanks!" along with "Laser Hockey", and "Shooting Range", are probably the only decent games in the Wii Play package. "Tanks!" will have you controlling a tank and battling off other vehicles. You can use the nunchuck for this one, making the tank move with the analog, or you can just use the Wiimote. I'm sure you can imagine using the A button to shoot and the D-Pad to move, so I suggest you use the nunchuck. This one is actually pretty fun with a friend or two. You can work together to take out the enemy tanks, banking shots off walls and such, or you can take them out early, allowing yourself to destroy all the tanks and get all of the points. You can turn it into a war if you would like.
Closing Comments
If this was a full blown $50 game I would just say that Nintendo has lost there mind and should reevaluate their whole company, but it is, technically only a $10 game, since it's a $40 retail, with a $30 Wiimote packed in along with it. I actually recommend this game. It's not atrocious, and it's actually probably slightly better than just getting a Wiimote by itself. But if you have other things in mind you can spend $10 for, say, towards a good $50, that is also and option.
Wii Play consists of 9 games, all of which can be played single player or multiplayer. And I must point out, this game is very tedious and boring without a friend. You won't have much fun without some one to play with. I also can't guarantee you'll have fun with a friend either. The games don't really have any theme whatsoever, unlike Wii Sports. It's kind of funny, actually. There are some sports games in it(pool, tennis and fishing are sports, right?), which makes you wonder why they weren't included in the game with sports in the title. It feels like Nintendo had all these games made, and they said, "Alright, which ones are we gonna put in?" From positioning you Mii in a floating tensil, to playing pool, to fighting tanks, it just feels like all the games were randomly picked and put on the disc.
The 9 games are:
-Shooting Range
-Find Mii
-Table Tennis
-Pose Mii
-Laser Hockey
-Fishing
-Billiards
-Charge!
-Tanks!
Shooting Range
One of the best (and nostalgic) games in Wii Play, is Shooting Range. It closely resembles the NES classic Duck Hunt. Sadly, in the time I played it, I didn't see the dog. It really is just duck hunt in better graphics with motion controls. The game is based on rounds. As you play longer, the rounds get harder each time. Early in the game, rounds one and two, you will just shoot circular targets on the screen. Later, you'll run into targets with your Mii's face on them, reducing points if you shoot them. In the later rounds you will shoot birds, cans, discs, and even aliens.
Find Mii
This is one of those weird ones that feel like it was just thrown in there. Here's how it works. So, you use your Wiimote to point at certain Miis the game tells you to find. The Miis you must find have a big range. Anyway, the game randomly generates, or so it seems, a bunch of different Miis on the screen, either walking, running, swimming, standing, and whatever else.. It will ask you to find one of them. Sometimes it will say "Find the odd Mii out". This means you'll have to find a Mii that is doing something different different that the other Miis. Others are "Find two alike Miis". This means you need to find two Miis that look alike. Others will have you find yourself, which will generate and identical copy of your Mii, which isn't too hard by the way, there's not a whole lot of Mii combinations, and puts it into the crowd, having you find it.
The "Find Mii" game is pretty fun at first with a friend, racing to click on the required Miis with your Wiimote, but it will get old really quick.
Table Tennis
There isn't a whole lot to say about table tennis. It controls just like you think it would. Move your Wiimote around and when ever the ping pong ball gets near push it forward. When you are serving, the A button bounces the ball off of the table, then you swing just like normal to hit it.
Pose Mii
Another one of the "random" games put into Wii Play. In this game, you will be treated to some interesting music and background effects. You use your Wiimote to pose your mii and move and rotate him/her to fill in the color-outlined tinsels that float around the screen. This is probably hard to picture, but basically it's shape filling. You Mii will make a weird pose and you'll have to make him do that pose and then put your Mii over the tinsel.
Laser Hockey
"Laser Hockey" is a Pong clone. That's it. I can't really say more. You know what pong is, right? Well, it's that. With lasers. This may seem lazy, but that's exactly what it is, and I can't really say more. The only difference is it leans a little towards air hockey too, only having a small space you can get your "puck" through, and having free movement of you... laser. First one to 8 wins. It's the same game you played for many years, it's one of the most addicting concept in video games, and it's still fun as hell in Wii Play.
Fishing
"Fishing" is just as boring as most of the other games in Wii Play, with a few exceptions. You use You Wiimote to move your fishing rod around the water, until you feel your Wiimote rumble, then you yank up. If you timed it perfectly, you will yank your fish up. Each fish is worth a certain amount of points. Occasionally, a special fish will appear in the corner of the screen, indicating a fish worth more points than most of the others is in the water.
Billiards
"Billiards" has the opportunity to be the best Wii Play game, but there is one huge flaw with it that just blows my mind. You must hit a certain ball. Yes, a certain ball. Meaning the game will but a big fat number on the screen and unless you hit that ball into the hole, it won't count. Now, the stripes and solid thing isn't even there. Just let us hit whatever we want. This is far from real pool.
Charge!
"Charge!" has you on a bull running a track, trying to avoid rails and fences on your way. You will be tempted to run into targets set throughout the course. This is another game that starts out pretty fun, but in the end it just winds up boring and just plain not fun at whatsoever. You flip the Wiimote on it's side, controlling the right to left movements of your bull, and pushing forward can will make it go faster, and pulling back will put the brakes on. You can make the bull jump over obstacles by making and upward motion with your Wiimote.
Tanks!
"Tanks!" along with "Laser Hockey", and "Shooting Range", are probably the only decent games in the Wii Play package. "Tanks!" will have you controlling a tank and battling off other vehicles. You can use the nunchuck for this one, making the tank move with the analog, or you can just use the Wiimote. I'm sure you can imagine using the A button to shoot and the D-Pad to move, so I suggest you use the nunchuck. This one is actually pretty fun with a friend or two. You can work together to take out the enemy tanks, banking shots off walls and such, or you can take them out early, allowing yourself to destroy all the tanks and get all of the points. You can turn it into a war if you would like.
Closing Comments
If this was a full blown $50 game I would just say that Nintendo has lost there mind and should reevaluate their whole company, but it is, technically only a $10 game, since it's a $40 retail, with a $30 Wiimote packed in along with it. I actually recommend this game. It's not atrocious, and it's actually probably slightly better than just getting a Wiimote by itself. But if you have other things in mind you can spend $10 for, say, towards a good $50, that is also and option.
