Almost one year into its life cycle, I was able to finally try out one of those new fandangled Wii consoles for the very first time. After getting over the initial shock of confusion from having held a traditional horizontal controller for the past sixteen years, and after playing with the basics of moving a cursor around on the Wii main menu, I came to one conclusion: why was the Wii so overhyped? Half the time, I couldn't get my cursor to stay on screen; obviously, I need practice working that damn thing. I also need to work on hand stability; I must have come down with a constant case of the shakes because when my cursor WAS on screen, it was wriggling all over the place. This was not leaving me feeling confident in the power of the Wii, so when my girlfriend popped in Wii Sports, I was not ready for athletics. Still, I trekked on, and found that although the game itself is far from perfect, it's a surefire way to make an ass out of yourself in front of the one you love.
For the sake of remaining uniform, I'm going to attend to each available sport individually, based on the order they appear in the Wii Sports menu. There are a total of five games here, the first of which is tennis. Now I am not exactly a fan of the sport itself, but games such as Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 and Virtua Tennis 3 for the PlayStation 3 have aroused a bit of interest in tennis in video game form. So naturally, I was intrigued by the fact that it appears here as well. The controls are quite simple: swing the Wiimote and your characters on screen swing their racquets. And you must use the 'A' button on your Wiimote during a serve to launch your ball into the air. That doesn't sound too complicated, does it? Nope. The controls here were rather responsive, at least for me, as I played many games of tennis on the Wii and did not lose one match. That's cool.
Baseball was a different matter altogether. It didn't seem to matter who was playing; we were consistently missing the pitches. The player whose team is not at bat pitches, and you pretty much throw the ball by performing a pitching motion with the aid of your beloved Wiimote. Meanwhile, the man at bat has to swing (obviously) with his Wiimote as the ball approaches. Based on how high or low you hold the Wiimote, your character might perform an accompanying high or low swing, and this could prove crucial to whether you hit a home run or just strike out. The problem with this mini-game lies not with the action itself, although my swings were a little choppy; it was the fact that I could not easily judge how far away the ball was before I swung! I suppose this is the case for most modern baseball games, but this is not a game for just baseball enthusiasts. Cut me some slack!
If I had to choose a favourite sport in Wii Sports, it would surprisingly enough be the one mini-game least likely to be considered a sport. That's right: it's Bowling! Basically, you perform with the Wiimote what a bowler would do with his bowling ball: roll it down the lane towards the pins at the end! (Although, for the record, only in Wii Sports would you need to hold down any type of "B" button during the process.) You can also, using the directional pad on the Wiimote, move left or right, or turn on an angle, to suit your preferences. I found this to be the most satisfying, as I was able to make spares, and even the occasional strike, more often than I ever could in real life. Later on, I figured out a trick to bowl strikes a bit more frequently. My bowling opponent, on the other hand, somehow managed to always curve to the left (and into the gutter on a regular basis). Hmmm...
Next on my Wii Sports To-Do List is Golf. Golf is just a crappy sport to begin with, so when you force me to actually try and play it, I don't take too kindly to that. You basically just swing your golf club to hit the ball by swinging the Wiimote, but there's a gauge on the side that tells you whether you are swinging too hard by changing in red (and flapping around, if that means anything to anybody). You can also switch what type of club you're using; I didn't really care, since the game chose some decent clubs for me. Now either the game is not as responsive as it ought to be or I am too powerful or oafish in my swinging ability. Considering my poor athletic skills (relative to, say, the average human being), I think it is my fault as to why I kept hitting the ball too far. Damn sand trap.
The last of the available sports was Boxing, and this was the one I enjoyed the least. Using the Wiimote and accompanying "nunchuk" controller, you can block your enemy or take a punch by thrusting towards them on screen. If you're playing with a partner, the screen will be split so each person can see the fight from the pseudo-first-person perspective. Using a health meter similar to that found in 3D Mario games (a circle cut into eight health slices), you must punch your way to a knockout. When your opponent goes down, they can try and get back up for more punishment, but eventually they go down for good. Well, I could block just fine, but judging punches was a hassle. I couldn't hit my opponent with the precise jabs I desired; perhaps they were just really good. However, I think the responsiveness of the sensor bar was not quite quick enough for this particular sport.
Wii Sports certainly has entertainment value, especially in the Bowling mini-game. However, that's just what it is: a set of five mini-games, none of which are particularly fleshed out. The games are oversimplified to compensate for the "non-gamer" to allow them to get into the Wii's new control style. Furthermore, the game's graphics and audio are paltry; only those who have been living in a cave with zero light penetration for the past decade or two will be particularly amazed by the look and sound of this game. The sensitivity and response power of the Wii's sensor bar makes this a questionable buy. Perhaps it would have been more suitable for me to have used a television set produced within the last three decades, but for some reason, it just feels like what my character did on screen did not always match up with the actions I made with the Wiimote.
Thankfully, this game comes as a pack-in title with the Wii in North America and Europe. Sadly, such is not the case for Japan -- they must purchase it separately! Considering I am living in North America now, it's rather difficult to recommend or not recommend this game. If you have a Wii, you've already tried out this title and either loved it or hated it. If you don't have a Wii, you probably don't care about this review at all (and I'm wondering how you got this far with such a cruel heart). And if you're thinking about getting a Wii, I doubt this game will tip the scales in your favour. But to summarize, it's a good introduction to getting used to the Wii's unique control scheme. Just don't expect to become addicted to this game: its joie-de-vivre will wear off sooner than you anticipate.
