Wii Sports, the game that defined the Wii, is now coming to Wii U in an unorthodox fashion.

Nintendo revealed these details today during one of its regular Nintendo Direct events.

Wii Sports Club is essentially Wii Sports HD, but downloading Wii Sports Club won’t cost you a thing. Instead, the individual sports will run you $9.99, with tennis and bowling launching on November 7. Boxing, baseball, and golf will be coming down the line.

Interestingly, there’s also the option to “rent” an all access pass for a single day for $1.99, and a set of free trials become available once you’ve purchased one of the games. The games will also include MotionPlus support, which wasn’t part of the original game, and online mutiplayer.

That seems quite pricey for what was once pack-in software, and it’s not shocking the first two games rolling out from this collection are the most popular slices from the original Wii Sports.

There are some interesting wrinkles to Wii Fit U, as well. Anyone with a Balance Board accessory can unlock the Wii Fit U software for free for a month starting on November 1. With the purchase of a Fit Meter pedometer for $19.99, you’ll continue to gain access to the software indefinitely. Anyone without a Balance Board can purchase the bundle separately for $90 on December 13, and a full-priced digital version of Wii Fit U will finally show up on February 1.

You can watch the entire Nintendo Direct below:

Smart move overall, still not the 'killer app'

So, they're adding online multiplayer to Wii Sports? I can't imagine that being all that compelling. Being in the same room with your friends/family flailing their arms all over the place was a huge part of what made that game fun.

Cost for Wii Sports doesn't seem that bad if you just don't want all of them. Like all I probably would want is boxing

That pricing strategy seems a little strange after it being a bundled game. That is still playable on your Wii U.

I feel like if anyone else did this with one of their popular titles, we'd just get a deluge of, "Hey! They're nickel n' dimin us aw up in here!"

Finally the HD remake we've all been waiting for.

Once you realize that everyone only played Wii Sports for Tennis and Bowling, it almost makes sense.

A good idea from Nintendo? :jumps out of window:

yes nintendo we get the whole direct to you joke

that's a bit nuts at 10 bucks Per sport, but sounds interesting overall.

Given how much fun i've had in the past playing Wii sports with mates this is practically a no brainer.

I think the added online multiplayer and rank system is enough of a sweetener to get me to buy this.

Ooh, I'm watching some of the video and the Wii Fit Trainer is showing more skin.

Kotaku Controversy Generation Squad, assemble!

I wouldn't say so. Nintendo's problem is giving the Wii U its own identity separate from the Wii, so this might, if anything, reinforce those problems rather than alleviate them.

Shhh! Nintendo is doing something with online play! Be quiet or you'll scare them off, and we'll have 6 more years of "online doesn't fit our vision".

That's great. I enjoyed using the original Wii Fit but fell off for a while, a free version will absolutely get me back into it.

I agree, it seems really desperate. First they try to recreate the Wii's success with a novel gamepad that doesn't really make any waves like the Wiimote did, and now it feels like they're stalling with a less ambitious Mario game and a Zelda remaster.

What's next? Lots of people have balance boards, right? Some of them might have bought a Wii U...? And I don't really think the family audience is going to freak out over Wii Sports again either, despite the resolution.

I don't really know what Nintendo is doing with the Wii U, but I hope they can deliver on some significant first party stuff next year. Their window for relevancy is closing, 3DS not withstanding.

Are they going to change the look of the trainer in Smash Bros. now?

Looking forward to this for some reason. Wonder if they will eventually add sports from Resort to this. Most likely right?

despite what all you guys are saying, and as valid as your points are about the identity and the hardware, a piece of software that is as novel and universally digestible/enjoyable as wiisports was for wii would move the box without having to do much rebranding of the hardware

it comes down to software

The games will also include MotionPlus support, which wasn’t part of the original game, and online mutiplayer.

It went by very quickly in the Nintendo Direct, but Iwata's wording (exclusive use of Wii Motion Plus, I think) makes it seem that Wii Sports Clubrequires Wii Motion Plus. Hopefully this will be cleared up soon.

As for the news, having Wii Fit U be a $20 upgrade for Wii Fit owners is pretty nice. Also the free trials for Wii Fit U and Wii Sports Club is a nice move. I dislike the pricing for Wii Sports Club; seems $5 too much (and fuck me for splitting $5 hairs). I hope the Resort games come to Wii Sports Club. I loved flying around Wu Hu Island in a plane and would love to see an HD remake of it.

Rental stuff is interesting, could see that coming in handy for a party or something where you only need it for 24 hours. That said, you can get a used copy of Wii Sports for like $5, so I'd like to see how they handle rentals with a new game instead.

@eribuster: Yeah definitely requires Motion Plus. You are correct. It's at 17:45 or so in the video he says "each sport will work exclusively with Wii Motion Plus technology."

lol

I might grab Bowling again with Wii Motion Plus, and Online Multiplayer. Never really played any of the other sports much, so I doubt I'd pay $10 each for those.

@eribuster The Wii U requires Wii Motion Plus for the Wii remote to work in Wii U games as far as I know, so yeah, Motion Plus will almost assuredly be required.

the 'day pass' seems like an inspired move... If you only intend on playing that game on like 5 separate occasions when friends come over, paying what amounts to $10 seems like a hell of a deal.

this comes off as desperate to me. They are trying to sell a pack-in game from 2006 for 50 dollars (if you buy all the events). What's next Nintendo?

Why?

Finally, the franchise we've all been waiting for!

Selling each sport individually is smart. But for $9.99? That's steep. I would've bought bowling, for around $4.99. Thanks but no thanks, Nintendo.

There's also the day-pass option. You don't keep the game forever, but you do get access to all of the games for twenty-four hours for two bucks. So if you're only going to be playing bowling during parties or whatever, you don't have to pay ten bucks. On the other hand, if you're going to play one of the games a lot, ten bucks isn't as bad as it could be.

If there's anything worse than playing Wii Sports is playing it in HD.

I don't think this will move this needle on Wii U.

Nintendo doesn't need a new Wii Sports. It needs the next Wii Sports.

Each game should be $5 at the most...Nintendo does realize how painfully simple and shallow these games are right? Like Wii Sports Tennis for $10? the first course of Super Mario Bros. alone has magnitudes more depth than that "whole game", dont get me wrong they're pretty fun (boxing and bowling mainly) but this is hilarious. Hopefully this platform allows for Wii Sports Resort games to come down the pipeline eventually.

That's an interesting idea. I may buy bowling and golf. Those were two super simple games that I played enough of.

But the whole point of Wii Sports (really, Wii Tennis) is that they were not very good sports games. They made use of the new controller, but in terms of a tennis game it was quite poor, in terms of baseball it was quite poor, etc.

Not very good games? They were great games, especially tennis and bowling. Yes, the games were simplistic, but that was the appeal. My parents who don't play video games could easily pick up and play this having fun just swinging their arms around. Not every sports game has to be a hyper-realistic simulation to be good.

With that said, I've done the Wii Sports thing. I still have my copy and can always pop it in the Wii U if people actually request it for some reason.

Is this what desperation looks like, Wii Sports HD?

I'm all for companies trying new pricing strategies though and seeing what sticks. Nintendo seem like a company with a split personality at the moment, they're trying things like this and early digital downloads with Windwaker HD but then things like unified accounts and basic online infrastructure fall by the way side.

I'm not sure how you classify this as desperation. Wii Sports may have been a simple launch game compilation, but it also reviewed well and sold well in territories in which it wasn't already a pack-in. And a better version of Wii Sports bowling, at the very least, sounds awesome to me.

As for the online infrastructure, there's a massive, massive difference between the way it existed on the Wii and Wii U, or even the Wii U and 3DS. Their online infrastructure is actually quite solid, and it was only within the past year that they integrated their console and handheld development units together. So chances are that going forward, their hardware devices will have much greater interaction with one another.

I just meant like....I recall not being able to move in Wii Tennis. It was all about timing the swing of the racquet. Once you remove the swinging motion, what's the point of an HD remake of Wii Tennis where you press buttons?