"A good game to come with the pack, as it IS just a tech demo really."

Nintendo going back to old traditions then? They included a nice shiny game in it's own DVD box and everything, called Wii Sports. Wii sports contains Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing. I am going to write a paragraph for each game, in order from best, to worst, explaining the basic premise of the game, their good and bad points, and how they fare in multiplayer.

So then, Wii Bowling. Yeah, Bowling is most probably the best game on Wii sports. It was the first I went to play, and it just so right, its pretty cool. Bowling is simple, you can move left and right, and even turn, then you hold the B button (the remotes trigger), swing your arm back, then swing it forward, and release B at the end of your forward swing. The ball flies down the alley, and hits the pins (unless you gutter ball it). Pressing UP on the Directional Pad will zoom in too, so you can look where its most probably best to aim. You can put spin on the ball, but to me, it seems I always do this. Your meant to try doing it by twisting your wrist, but I do it anyways. The game is pretty cool on multiplayer, and you can play it with one remote too, although using another remote is more easier. Bowling is pretty fun, but its a little too simple, and can be very easy sometimes, then frustrating other times, especially once your PRO with your skill (basically, doing well gets your skill level up, get 1000 skill, your pro, this is for all Sports games too). Also, with all the other sport games, it gets pretty boring fast.

Next up, is Tennis. I thought this might be the best game, but it appears to be second best. Tennis is simple, you play on one team, with another team member (basically, doubles) against another double team. When the ball comes to you, just swing your arm to hit it away. Now, there are already some problems with these. First, you can ONLY play doubles, which is kinda stupid. Also, swinging your arm, its VERY HARD to direct the ball in a certain direction. A good thing though, is the game will let you off if you swing a little late, even when the ball can't be hit, it will let you, this is to make up for the games slight lag when you swing the remote. You cannot move, but this isn't really much of a problem, because trying to move would most probably put people off. Playing multiplayer is fun, but not really mind blowing though. Flaws? Well, again, it gets boring fast, multiplayer isn't too good, doubles only, not TOO hard when your double actually does stuff either. Its still fun, but of course it has flaws.

Next, is Boxing. I had a lot of trouble with this, because it was either Boxing or baseball. I love baseball and everything, but there is a big, major flaw, so I just had to go with Boxing. Boxing is simple, you just move the remote, and nun-chuck forward, to punch the other character. You can ATTEMPT to hook, or uppercut, you can block attacks, and also dodge left or right. When I say attempt, the controls for Boxing are pretty rubbish and unresponsive. I find my self punching with the nun-chuck (left hand) for the guy to do a hook with the right hand! This isn't that bad, but it seems very hard to do uppercuts and hooks, thus you just kinda do them randomly. The enemy AI is stupid at first, but the more skill you get, they eventually get pretty hard. The knock-out system is kinda annoying though. Yeah, blows to the head which make your Mii flip right over and land on their skull can knock them out, but a petty little touch, its kinda annoying. You can easily get knocked out the second time you fall down, which is stupid in many ways. Also, swinging your arms forwards as fast as you can get make you win A LOT of times, easily, which is stupid, because no skill is required. Fortunately, Boxing is the best multiplayer game, and shouldn't be missed. Its very fun, and takes a lot of energy, this is also the sports game which makes you the most fittest.

So Baseball then. Baseball is very simple, you play either as the batter, or pitcher. You swing the remote, and if you hit it well, you run, and try to go around the square thing (sorry, im not American, I don't know about Baseball or any of the names and stuff). There are many flaws in Baseball though. First, its pretty hard for new players, its hard to swing it at the right time. Also, when you DO hit a shot, it seems to be a Foul ball a lot, its hard NOT to hit it outside of the limited space in front of you. Also, you cannot choose when your person runs, which is pretty bad. If you hit it, but barely just, your out. You always have to get a really long shot to at least get to the first base. Also, the amount of bases you run depends mainly on how far the ball goes, usually, you get one pretty easily, two bases is what you run the most, and three for when it bounces off the wall and the people just can't seem to get to it. And of course, you can get Home Runs and even Out of the park. The bat, if you hold it correctly from the start, animates your hand movements well, and doesn't really lag, so for games like Zelda, where the sword swinging lags a second, this is kinda bad. The pitching is pretty cool, holding down different buttons, A, B, or both, or none, will throw different types, Screwball, Fast ball etc. Basically, just swing your arm down as fast as you can, and you can easily get people out with three strikes. Playing Baseball multiplayer is very frustrating. It seems hard to time the swings right when your friend pitches, which is way Baseball is very bad for multiplayer, unless you're very skilled at baseball.

Last, is the VERY BAD golf. Basically, you swing the remote back, hold A, swing forward, and hit the ball. Then you have to try and get it all the way to the green, and down the hole. The remote sounds like a great idea for a golf club. Wrong, the remote is terrible. It is pretty bad at knowing when your swinging forward or backward. Its also too sensitive, putting is more like flicking the remote, and just generally hitting it isn't like real golf, swing too hard, and it will curve off. Golf is an extremely hard game to play, and the putting is hard. The green doesn't have much of a grid, pressing 1 or 2 (I forget) will place colours, the darker the green, the higher it is, which is better than nothing, but not as good as a grid. There are also only 9 holes to play on, but that doesn't bother me too much. Because it isn't based on real golf courses, the holes can be very crazy, like small islands, to a snake like island you have to hit it up. Its pretty cool. Still, a good old fashion bar where you press a button at the right time would of been much better. Multiplayer CAN be played with one remote, but it's not really worth the effort. A lot of work needs to go into golf really.

What else is there in Wii Sports? There is a training mode, which pretty much, just isn't training mode at all. It's more like, challenges for the different games. They also don't explain HOW to do the stuff, so it sure isn't training. There are some cool challenges though, a bowling one for example, the amount of pins being doubled, and you have to try to hit them all. This goes to something like, over 90 or so pins, maybe more, but I can't remember exactly. There is also Wii fitness. This just gives you random challenges you have to play one after the other, and you cannot fail them either. Once they're all down, it detects your Wii Fitness age, and the idea is to do this every day to get it low. I got around 25, I don't really know if thats good or bad. These extras are good for a while, but you're more better off just playing the sport games straight off.

PROS:

Good fun for a while.
Nice multiplayer for Boxing.

CONS:

Golf is pretty bad, multiplayer is lacking in some games.
Doesn't last very long.

THE RATINGS:
Graphics: 7.0/10
Audio: 7.0/10
Story: N/A
Game Play: 6.0/10
Life Span: 6.5/10
Difficulty: 7.0/10
Multiplayer: 7.0
Overall: 5.9/10

My Two Pence:

Overall, for the game you get free in the box, Wii Sports is impressive. No one should expect this to be an extremely good, Zelda beating game. Its fun whilst is lasts, with the family or friends. The multiplayer is good (for boxing at least) and fun, the games are fun. Personally, its fine to have the Wii without any other game, because Sports got me occupied for quite a long time. Yeah, I haven't even completed Zelda yet. You don't have an excuse NOT to play Wii Sports, so when you get your Wii, make sure you play this first.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/07