Wii Sports

For a while Wii Sports was my most anticipated game for the Wii. Then came the news that the games were really simple. My heart sank. I no longer anticipated the game and that was that. This may be the reason why I find it to be so much fun. Yes it has it's share of problems, but overall the game is so much fun that you just don't care.

As a game there isn't much here. Wii Sports has the traditional exhibition modes that are more for multiplayer and hi-scores than anything else.You can do a training mode which unlocks more training games. All of this can be done in less than an hour. That leaves the Brain Age style Workout mode. Like Brain Age it's not really too much of a game. What makes all of this work even for single player is the amount of fun it is to try and best your hi-scores in some of the better games. This all owes much to the Wii controller and how unique it is.

There are a total of 5 games included in the package. All of which are multiplayer and have fun training/minigame style modes. These games are Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. Let's start off with the best games.

Bowling, Golf, and Baseball was where I had most of my fun. Bowling is probably the best example of how fun the Wii can be. You can pretty much do everything that bowling has to offer. Golf is another game that has many of the features that you would expect, and can be very competitive among friends. The swing mechanics are very interesting and fun. There is a little problem with putting softly since the remote doesn't detect really soft hits. For many people Baseball is probably a throw away game. It's one of the games that has been simplified probably too much. You cannot control your fielders or runners. It's basically a pitcher vs hitter game. And in my eyes it's a pretty good one. It requires patience to get your pitch (against a real person), and when you do it feels amazing. Almost like the real thing.

Then we come to the lower two. Tennis can be fun, but not being able to control your character makes you feel helpless to hits that you are sure you would otherwise get. Boxing however is just bad overall. It is the one game that could benefit the most from the two motion sensing controllers, but in the end it just doesn't work well. The controllers are unresponsive which just turns into a waving your arms in the air fest.

All of these games have graphics that aren't amazing, but they work. Work enough to where I don't have an opinion one way or the other. They certainly aren't great, but they don't detract in any way from the game. The same goes for the sound. It sounds fine and the effect and music is memorable. Especially after hours of playing the same sport over and over.

What really keeps Wii Sports from being just a tech demo is the multiplayer. There is nothing like bowling with 3 friends in your living room. Or the tension when it's the final inning and your down 1 run, and of course the trash talk about how you swing cannot be replicated on any other console. It is a downer that there are not as many options for the different games as one would like. For example you can only play 3 innings in Baseball.

Wii Sports is a great pack-in game that shows just how much fun the Wii can be. It's not the kind of game one would want to become the standard for all Wii games, but it is great fun, and a great first step.

PROS
+ Great ideas
+ Bowling and Baseball are solid fun
+ Smart use of Mii's
+ Great pack in

CONS
- Boxing is terrible
- Lack of depth in some games
- Really only fun with friends