Wii Play (Wii Play (Wii))

Member Name: butters

Product:	Wii Play (Wii)
Date:	24/01/07 (805 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some addictive games | free controller

Disadvantages: Some not so addictive games

After Nintendo surprised the world last year, not with the name of their console (Wii) but its motion-sensing ability, it was pretty obvious from the start that there were going to be many mini-game games. WarioWare is one, and this is another, each made possible by the Wii and its controller-2 wireless Remotes, one for pointing at the screen, great for target games, which has basic buttons on such as A on the front, and b at the back, fitting perfectly in your hand.
Then this is attached to a nunchuk, which is generally for moving around with and aiming. It has motion sensing ability though is mainly used to walk or run around. Anyone with a Wii will have been mesmerised by this control scheme after playing games such as Twilight Princess where you need to aim at the screen with a bow and arrow, and Red Steel, a first person shooter that the Wii remote is made for. This game is a lot simpler, a mini-game collection made to get you used to the Wii remote by a series of mini games, 9 in all.
And to go with this, a new controller is also given out for free
(Wii remote, not the nunchuk) so you can enjoy great multiplayer with your friends, something Nintendo aimed to do with the Wii-bring more people into games. A normal controller costs £30 and this game has an RRP of £35 so it’s not bad, especially if you’ve got some gaming family. It is also a huge incentive to buy this game.

~Wii Play~

First off you have to choose your mii to play with, a character you make yourself with the Wii console that will be used in games, and you go to the menu screen where you have to unlock games one by one, by playing them through in order.

Shooting Range-the first of these mini games gives the game hope as soon as you play it. Ditch the nunchuk since it won’t be needed in any of these games, and alls you have to do is shoot at the items that appear on the screen. First will be slow moving balloons, but then you will have to give your reflexes a real test by hitting a lot faster targets such as falling cans, Frisbees in clay pigeon shooting, and aliens. Hit the most to get the highest score and you will get a medal depending on how abysmal your aim actually is.
This game is extremely addictive at the start because it’s so simple, yet you want to hit all of the targets. However, once you have acquired that platinum medal, which for me took less than 10 turns, it starts to feel like there is no real point to the game. It gets a little more competitive if you have a mate over and you have to try to hit the target first, but either way it runs out of steam quite fast. I’d give it 4/5 stars.

Find Mii-as soon as you see this you’re going to cringe. It’s like Where’s Waldo, but with moving people. You have to find where your mii is swimming or walking etc. but there’s no difference. It’s just completely lame and I don’t see how it gets you used to using the Wii remote really since the shooting game has already gave me pointing skills. They have tried to ‘spice it up a bit’ by getting you to find 2 of your mii’s or spot the odd one out but it’s still the same old boring stuff, and after one try of this to unlock the next level I have not looked back and got myself to play it again, whether or not I got the lowest medal. 1 star.

Table Tennis-If you managed to stay awake during the previous game this one will be unlocked. Table Tennis on the Xbox was a bit of a hit and in theory it should work great with the remote. Tennis worked on Wii Sports after all, but something is not right. You can play at the start or back of the table (fixed camera angle so playing at the back is pretty dull) and follow the basic rules of table tennis, a very addicting ‘sport’. But instead you just get a racket that is either too sensitive if you sit up close, or stiff if you sit from a far and swinging and moving the racket just makes it fiddly. You move the racket like you normally would, hold the Wii remote and move it, and swing as you would too, even putting back spin on is necessary, but since it is fiddly I rarely play this either and if I do I play multiplayer, which is only slightly more fun because your opponent is then as crap as you. Plus, if you ever do get over 100 hits in a rally it cuts off since it is the maximum you can do. If you can get past it being fiddly though it is ok so I would give it 3 stars because of multiplayer.

Pose Mii-Well, the only good thing about this game is that it hasn’t been done in another game in this collection, and I am glad of it. Your mii floats around and there are bubbles with a silhouette of you mii in. You have to tilt the remote so your character fits in the bubble, and, in the later levels, press a button so your character changes stance (there are 3). Be quick though, because if you keep on missing you fail and don’t have to play this abysmal game again.
I failed, and don’t care at all about it.

Laser Hockey-it’s what they call pong when they have messed it up. Your remote is the ‘block’ that you can move to hit the hockey puck back and forth between your block and the computer one to, playing goalie and defending it from some goals. It’s far worse than real laser hockey, and dear God I would even prefer to play pong it is that bad. To add to the ‘fun’ though you can tilt your block at angles to make it hard for the enemy by making the puck bounce off the walls loads. I just find my hand getting more bored than my mind though until is wonders off the screen with the message coming up to point the remote at the screen. Too late, the computer has scored but at least I am that little bit closer to a good game. If you get used to it though it’s ok, and multiplayer makes it slightly better just because it’s a little more relaxing. I still suck though and this gets 3 stars (just about)

Billiards-basically pool/snooker. Your remote is the cue and you have to use it like you would if you were playing pool in real life. Swing it back and forth to hit the white. You have to hit balls in a certain order (like in the normal game) but there are no reds. Amusing and it has some hope at being a good game with multiplayer adding to the fun since it is just like real pool. I have no real complaints about it but once I had got an ‘unbeatable’ score of 60 (my dad got 63), I found out I was playing to try to beat my score, taking the fun away. After creating another mii though which I don’t use for competition the game got its charm back again. I’ll be friendly and give it 5 stars and it is generally the preferred game amongst others with this collection.

Fishing-another pretty stupid idea here where you are fishing. There is a small pond of fish, different types and you have to throw the wii remote forward into the pond and catch fish, meaning, whenever they attach their self to the rod you pull up. You get special fish and fish that will knock points off you but it is fun for a short while until it becomes apparent that this game requires about 2 brain cells to play the game-it really is stupid and the fishing found in Legend of Zelda is far better, and I have spent many hours of the day playing this. I’d give this game 2 stars with multiplayer adding very little to the fun. Anyone with legend of Zelda (about 75% of all USA wii owners, not sure about UK) will be disappointed far more than those without, this game has no effort put into it and I am pretty sure I could make a better game myself.

Charge-a really stupid game that is so addicting I will say straight away it’s worth 5 stars. You are a mii riding a cow. Holding the remote sideward like a normal controller (with the D-pad on the left), you just tilt the remote left and right to move the cow left and right, pull it up to make the cow jump the fences and tilt the remote forward to make the cow go faster. The aim of it is to knock down the scarecrows that pop up in your way, even the moving ones and even after getting a platinum medal I am not put off of playing because it is so fun and bright. The multiplayer adds to the fun further because there is still only one set of scarecrows that pop up at a time so a lot of barging your oppositions cow occurs making it a great relaxing party game and by far the best of this collection. This mini-game saves the game as a whole and it straightaway bumps this rating up a star alone.

Tanks-no doubt the only game that requires more than a dozen brain cells you are in charge of a tank which you move with the D-pad or the nunchuk (the only game that even gives you this option). Your aim is to kill enemy tanks by shooting with the B button by aiming at the enemy, and dropping mines with the A button and driving away before another poor tank explodes. Starts of easy but gets hard pretty fast, this game is difficult to master and has quite a bit of replay value. An extremely good end worth 4 stars, though the multiplayer could have been better. Instead of the obvious thing, going against a friend, you defeat the enemy tanks (not each other) with the aim to defeat more tanks than your friend and therefore rack up a higher score. My only complaint is the multiplayer.

~Game Information~

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
RRP: £35 (sold in game stores for this price. Has a free wii remote)
Age: 3+
Multiplayer: Yes
Online: No
Release Date: Wii launch (8th December)
Formats: Wii only.

~Graphics & Sound~

The graphics are very cartoony. They will not blow you away and show the wii’s power (miniature compared to other next gen consoles) with awesome explosions but they neatly fit the game.
The sound on some of the games like Tanks and Charge are excellent though other games vary. The good ones suit the games perfectly, and the others you can just ignore.

~Overall~

A few games save this awful compilation with Charge, Tanks, Shooting and Billiards being the top 4 games, mixed with some horrors that shouldn’t have been put on. It was obviously made to go with the wii remote to get people to buy it, and I think that is the case with many people buying it for just that reason. With a remote setting you back £30 RRP and this only costing
£35, it’s a must buy for all people wanting to get a wii remote but one to avoid in game stores if you prefer single player-because though Charge and Billiards are worth the extra fiver, this game would not be worth £35, or even half or it without the wii remote. It’s no Twilight Princess.

What you do get though is a few good games, a wii remote and some fun that involves very little strategy, though there is no need for it. Aiming to get people used to the remote, Wii Sports beats it by a mile, and both Zelda and Red Steel have has pretty thorough control tutorials anyway. The replay value varies. Some games you will play once, some you will play three times and others like Charge you will keep coming back to but I doubt you will be playing it much by next Christmas. Multiplayer adds the replay value up a bit but not that much.

WarioWare is a Wii game that’s came out recently which is a collection of mini-games. It doesn’t have the free wii remote but it might be more of your cup of tea.

Summary: A nice mixure of goodgames, and bad games.