Wii Sports

The Good
The most obvious right out of the box (literally) appeal of Wii Sports is that an actual game is finally included with a video game system again. It's been a LONG time in coming, not since the days of 16-Bit titles has the consumer seen a pack-in game with the first run of game systems.

Wii Sports is a lot of fun. Five different games that are designed to get the player accustomed to how the Wiimote works, and they are diverse enough to keep things interesting.

As a package, Wii Sports is very visually simple, but the graphics are crisp and clean, and the music is non-offensive. The biggest graphical highlight is the inclusion of the Mii characters as players and background. It's amusing to see your virtual friends hang out behind the scenes, and take part in the action.

All of the games work well with the Wiimote, but Bowling and Tennis provide the most fun out of the set. The Bowling game itself actually plays very well, allowing for some humorous flubs if improperly handled.

For a free game, it has a surprising amount of diversity.

The Bad
For a "next generation" game, Wii Sports is not what I would have had in mind. It comes off as more of a tech demo than the future visually.

As accurate as the games are, Baseball and Golf get tiresome easily, and Boxing, while clever using both parts of the controller feels a little hit and miss with the control. Some of tutorials are just too long. After you learn how to play, you don't want to hear another speech on how to use the Wiimote for the selected game.

Wii Sports also has the factor of being fun for only so long. There's going to come a point where the novelty of the controller is going to wear off, and on the shelf Wii Sports will likely remain once developers get more use to the control setup of the Wii.

Also, there is not a lot of depth to some of the games. Baseball is simply simulating throwing a ball or hitting it with a bat. No runs, no base stealing, nada. It's there for instant pick up and play gratification.

The Bottom Line
It's nice to see a free game with the launch of a game system again. It really is. I'm glad Nintendo decided to adopt this tradition of old again, because it's a real benefit for the cost conscious consumer (say THAT three times fast).

The games are fun, even the less appealing ones for a little while, and it's a great way to show off the uniqueness of the control setup.

At the end of the day, one has to accept that Wii Sports is little more than a tech demo to show off new hardware, but in reality, it could be worse than Wii Sports. A LOT worse. It's a fun little game that is a good warm-up for what the system can do, or until you put the new Zelda game in for the first time.

I can't recommend it, because you'll end up with this game whether you want it or not. But I can say that it is enjoyable.

The Good
I suppose I was among the lucky few who actually managed to snag a Nintendo Wii; even luckier was that I managed to get one a few days after launch. Since then I've been able to play and sample several games (ExciteTruck being the worse, Zelda being the best), but the one game that I keep coming back to is Wii Sports.

Writing reviews for Wii games is going to become an ongoing difficulty in the game industry. How do you write reviews that are almost entirely based on user's preferences and general gaming skill? Sure, you can look and judge games based on quality of graphics, music, dialogue, story, the usual; but when it comes to the Wii, there really is no universal standard for gameplay.

Wii Sports demonstrates this pretty effectively. Wii Sports is the pack-in game that comes with the Nintendo Wii. It offer 5 different sports: Bowling, Golf, Boxing, Tennis, and Baseball, plus a few other smaller options. If you sit down with this game, you will have a fun time playing it; but when you sit back and watch others play, you will notice that everyone has their own play style, and as such get different results.

Since Wii Sports is essentially 5 games in one, I'll review each game type seperately, starting with my favorite and what I believe is the best game.

Bowling - Most reviewers will agree with me that this is the best developed of all the games. In order to play, you hold your Wiimote in front of you, like you'd hold a real bowling ball. You swing back, just like in real life, and move forward (while releasing B) to throw the ball. Depending on how straight your motion is, the ball will either go straight, curve, or have spin on it. The same goes with the speed of your movements controlling the speed of the ball. One little interesting addition that they put in the game is that you can literally do the "drop throw" you see in real life. While it is possible to play this game sitting down and just using your wrists, the best control is achieved when you actually stand up and do a full arm motion; no need to actually line up and take the required steps, however.

The scoring and game is standard; 10 frames, strikes, spares, the dreaded splits, etc. This is also one of the few games on Wii Sports that allows you to have multiple players controlling one Wiimote.

Baseball - Pretty much the only complaint I've heard about baseball is that it isn't completely realistic. The player has two duties in this game: to bat the ball, and to throw the ball. Batting is pretty self explanatory; hold the Wiimote like a regular bat, and swing away. This is one game where it actually is easier to just use one arm/wrist instead of doing the full motion with both hands wrapped around the controller. Pitching is accomplished by moving the controller in a throwing motion. Speed is determined by how fast you whip it, and direction by directional control, naturally. One interesting thing is that there are multiples times of pitches: fastball, curveball, screwball, and splitter. These are changed by which button or combination of buttons you hold down as you pitch.

Boxing - The only game in Wii Sports that uses the nunchuck. You hold both hands before you, just like you would your fists in a real match. Depending on where you swing, you will perform different punches: jabs, uppercuts, body blows, etc. You are able to dodge blows by physically moving your body (or the controllers) to the far left or right.

Interesting bit of trivia: the first opponent in boxing looks just like Jim Caviezel from Passion of the Christ.

Golf - My least favorite of the games. It's golf. You have enough control that you can slice, hit it halfway decent, change your clubs, putt fairly decently, and still get so bored that you quit halfway through the first hole. You actually have to swing your controller like a golf club to get results in this game, and I guarantee that the first time you putt you will seriously overcompensate and send your ball flying. If you can tell, I really haven't played this one too much; it's golf.

Tennis - 2 on 2 tennis match. You have no control over the movement of your characters; just the club/paddle/stick/ whatever. Probably the most simple and underdeveloped of the Wii Sports games. Another game that I really have not put much time into.

So those are the 5 main games. Two other neat additions to Wii Sports is a training mode and a Fitness mode ala some of those Brain games for DS. Through 3 events (Pick up the Spare, Hit the Tennis Ball, and Hit the Homerun) the game tracks your progress daily and provides you with your "Wii Age", pun very much intended I'm guessing. This is actually pretty entertaining, and provides a little incentive to put some time into Wii Sports daily.

One last thing very much positive - the music following the boxing event is highly infectious. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a new source of remix music.

The Bad
Ok, let's do this by game type again.

Baseball - I personally did not have any issue with this, but a few have commented on it to me. Baseball does not follow normal rules. If you bunt, you are out. If they catch the ball after it bounces anywhere in the infield, you are out. You also have no control over anyone else but the pitcher and batter. Basically, you swing and throw, and in the case of batting, depending on how long it takes them to get to the ball or how far away the ball is, you will either get a single, double, or the rare triple.

My response to people who voice this complaint? Wait until Mario Baseball. Oh, and stop whining.

Boxing - This is boxing, not Street Fighter. If you attempt to land a thousand hyper fists, you will get hit. I, and others who have played this, have tried to move faster than the game. It is very easier to move faster than your character can react, and when that happens, you just end up losing control while your Mii spazs out. Once you slow down and actually start thinking of which punches you want to land, and the timing of those punches, the game will respond normally.

Golf - Fairly easy to trick this game. There really is no need to do any backswing. Just hold the controller stationary then throw it forward; instant shot that often tends to be better than perfect. Putting takes some practice; the key is to followthrough, and odds are you will still overshoot.

Bowling - Really nothing I can say bad about this game. It controls nigh perfectly. Some better camera angles would be appreciated though; at times, you can never tell if you are looking at one pin or a row of pins. I've also noticed that the closer you get toward the sensor bar, the straighter your shot...but that would be cheating.

Tennis - It might just be me, but I've really felt no noticeable control over where I can send the ball to. It feels like I'm just hitting the ball, and letting it go where it wants. This is probably just a failing on my part, though.

Other than that...well, I suppose the argument can be made that the graphics suck, there isn't enough games, the music isn't of FF quality, etc. But those are others complaints, not mine.

The Bottom Line
Wii Sports is probably more like a Zero Generation game than a 1st Generation game for the Wii. While it is a pack-in, this is a highly well done pack-in that not only can provide hours of entertainment for you and your family and friends, but is also the perfect introduction to the system that many have predecided is geared toward first graders.

Prove them wrong. Go buy a Wii and play some Wii Sports.

The Good
Now, to be fair, this review is only slightly, oh-so slightly biased because, in all honesty, I HATE the Wii... well, the controller, anyway. I haven't played ANY Wii games apart from this, so hear me out, Nintendo fans. I don't hate the Wii as a whole, just the controller. It also doesn't help that I'm not a big Sports-game fan. So...yeah...

With that out of the way, I'll admit, the game isn't horrid. I just really, really, realllly suck with the controller. Plus, I don't like Sports games all that well. I can't really say anything else good about this.

The Bad
Well... it's a sports game. If you like them, good for you, but if I want to play football, I'll freakin' play football. If I want to play baseball, I play some OUTSIDE! Why, oh why, do people love playing outside sports inside?

But in all seriousness, let's talk about the game. The gameplay can range from boring to annoying. It couldn't really hold my attention for long, but like I said, not a sports game fan. Baseball is kind of boring, tennis can be real annoying at times, bowling is ok I suppose, and I forget/ haven't tried the other two.

The graphics are not very good. They are too childish and simplistic. The PS2 has graphics better than this. EARLY PS2 even! In my opinion, the whole Mii thing is really childish to begin with. But look at me ramble on about the least important thing in a game.

The control, for Wii Remote, at least, are all right, but can be kind of awkward at times. Perhaps it's my TV or placement, but I don't know...

The Bottom Line
I know this review sucks, but I can't really review a game in genre I don't even like to begin with. And to clarify, I am NOT a fan boy of Wii, 360, or PS3. That reward belongs to the Nintendo Gamecube.

Bottom line, if you like it, good. Just don't hate me because I don't like a certain genre.