Remember when you had to wait in line for several hours just to get a hold of a Wii and the most unlikely of killer apps, Wii Sports? I can remember spending one February night in a Target parking lot in frigid temperatures... well I spent most of the time in my comfy car with the heat blasting, but you get the jist of it. Anyway, the Wii was a big hit among my old roommates. We were Wii Sports fans from the beginning. We went full on with the Wii elbow and all that. We did later figure out how not to strain ourselves while padding Hitler Mii's tennis stats to above 2000. Wii Sports was just one of those games that was so simple, yet so fun to play with others. It's one of the few games this generation that is widely accepted among the entire gaming demographic, and even if you hate motion controls, you probably still had a little fun swinging your arms like an idiot for a few minutes.
And next month comes the long-awaited sequel, Wii Sports: Havana Nights... er, I mean Wii Sports Resort. Now it's no surprise that Wii Sports Resort is going to be a massive hit above and beyond any game coming out this year (okay, maybe Modern Warfare 2) but the bigger surprise can be the game itself. While Wii Sports was one of the first games that excited Wii owners, at some point you learn how to cheat the system and you realize how shallow the game really is, and then it's just less fun. When playing something like a Wii Sports, just simple wrist flicks don't cut it anymore. That immersion is gone once you realize the controls aren't perfect. With Wii MotionPlus, I'm hoping that there will be more to the controls and considering the praise Tiger Woods 10 has been getting from critics and gamers, I think Nintendo might have a gem in Wii Sports Resort.
But the feelgood game of the year? In 2006, Wii Sports was one of the rare titles that emphasized fun and light-hearted competition over story, structure, and grit. Look at Twilight Princess for example. It's a gamer's game, one of the few on the Wii at the time. Zelda to some might be fun, but it's the kind of fun I would have as a fan of the series or a fan of those core games Nintendo talks about. Wii Sports, on the other hand, is more like a friendly game of Wiffleball you play in your friend's yard. You might keep score, but you don't give a shit who wins at the end. At the end of the day, it was all about having a great time with friends.
Wii Sports was the feelgood game of the year of 2006 in my opinion.
Wii Sports Resort is going to follow in the footsteps of Wii Sports and bringing its own carefree gaming style you don't often see on other consoles. I'm totally pumped for Wii Sports Resort which might sound weird to some, but it could very well be the game I end up playing most often this year. Sword fighting alone makes me happy to be a Wii owner in 2009. You can have your Assassin's Creed 2 and Halo: ODST... I've got disc dog, yo!
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