Wii SPORTS
Loads of Fun for the whole #&%in' Family
By Garrin Clark

When the Nintendo Wii was first announced at E3 a couple of years ago, one of the feature presentations was Wii Sports.  Immediately fans lauded the innovation of the Wii-mote and the ease of use it displayed.  I’m here to say it’s as easy and fun as it looked!  Wii Sports is an awesome title for all around family fun!  In our episode, Beth Walker said that she and her children play together often and it’s a lot of fun for them to spend that time playing together.  Therein lays the drawing point for Wii Sports, its easy enough for both adults and children to play together.  Featuring different modes in Boxing, Baseball, Bowling, Tennis and Golf, you compete against your friends/family in the sport of your choice with up to 4 players competing at one time.  The graphics, like most Wii titles won’t be blowing anyone socks off, but that’s not what the Wii is really intended for.  Wii Sports is all about bringing people, all kinds of people together to play a fun game together.

The games are simplified for ease of use, which makes it quick and easy for anyone to pick up.  Tennis for instance is the easiest to use for me.  A quick flick of the wrist lobs the ball up and depending on which hand is dominant, a left or right swing will give you either a forehand or backhand swing.  That’s pretty much all you control in the game as player movement is dictated totally by the system itself.  The other games also limit player movement control which may prove to be a bit frustrating when trying reach a ball juuuuust slightly off the tip of your racket.  The other games are also similar in simplified ease of use, but some are infinitely more frustrating like say, boxing.  In Boxing you control the bobbing and weaving of the player along with throwing punches.  It’s hard to throw the exact punches you’re looking for, and much like other very simplified games, its very easy to exploit the games lack of complexity.  Throwing nothing but well placed jabs will usually net you a KO, so that lessens a lot of the sports appeal.  Otherwise you’d be giving your arms a pretty good workout throwing all those punches.  The best sport created in the Wii Sports repitoire?  It’s got to be Bowling for certain.  It’s not too hard to play, but it’s not easy to master either.

It’s not a Legend of Zelda type game, but being the pack-in game for the Nintendo Wii system allows Wii Sports to showcase all of the Wii’s innovative potential as a motion-sensor centric system.  It also serves as a great excuse for all the kids to sucker their parents into buying a Wii, because they’ll want to play too once they try it, but honestly buying a Wii is a simple choice to make as it’s truly one of the better systems ever designed.