"Simple? Check. Tons of fun? Check. Depth? Nope."

There's one game Wii gamers will be playing whether they like it or not. That game is Wii Sports, the first game to be packed in with a console on launch day in years. But you may find yourself asking, "Why Wii Sports? Why would Nintendo choose to pack in this game above all the others?" The answer to that is the Wii remote. This game is meant to showcase exactly what the Wii remote can do and will hopefully reel in those non-gamers.

GAMEPLAY:

Wii Sports consists of five sports: tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing. But with all the other minigame collections out there (one of them offering 70), how can Wii Sports compete? For starters, it's free. And these sports, though simplified, are deeper than your average minigame.

The Wii remote controls something in every game. If you're playing tennis, the Wii remote becomes your racket. In baseball it's the bat or the hand you pitch with and so on. The actions you perform with the remote to do something, such as swing the racket, are mapped so well to a human's natural movements that you don't even think about it. The problem here is you only control a certain object(s.) In tennis, for instance, running is done for you. In baseball you don't play anyone in the outfield to control where they go to try to catch the ball. This was done to make the game seem less intimidating and the game does a great job of controlling fielding, running, etc. on its own, but I would have liked to be able to do them myself all the same. That said, since these sports are simplified they're very easy to pick up and play.

Out of all the five sports, three of them are good. Bowling is the best because it works much like it does in real life, no simplification involved. Tennis and baseball are equally good, though baseball isn't as good as tennis since it seems oversimplified. These three succeed because their motion control works very well. Boxing and golf don't do as good of a job. Boxing doesn't give you that sense of physical contact and feels clunky as well as, at times, unresponsive. Despite boxing's clunkiness, it's still pretty fun. The same can't be said for golf, unfortunately. It's extremely difficult to accurately gauge the power of your swings so you might find yourself praying it will go as far as you needed it to. This is especially bad in putting. When you swing the Wii remote lightly if you're close, sometimes it won't pick up the movement. When you swing harder, the ball goes further than you needed it to. So, three of the sports are good, one is just okay, and the another is just bad.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND:

Wii Sports isn't the most graphically impressive game out there. Heck, it doesn't even come close. It looks last-gen and pretty generic. This game is tied to the Mii Channel in the Wii Channels menu, where you create toy-like avatars that resemble you and your friends. The Miis give the game style. There's a certain charm to seeing yourself onscreen hitting home runs. Nothing in this game looks bad. It's very polished and clean-looking, but far from impressive. Instead of trying to make realistic backgrounds, this game probably would have benefited from a more stylized look. The simplistic look is intentional, but that doesn't change the fact that this game just doesn't look very impressive at all.

The sound here is okay. The music is charming, but it won't blow you away. Its just there to serve it's purpose as background music and nothing more. Unlike games such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, this game doesn't overuse the Wii remote's speaker. The speaker still gives out this tinny sound, but that's more the system's fault than the game's. Anyway, the speaker does a good job of immersing you with the sounds of a tennis racket connecting with the ball, a baseball bat hitting the ball, etc. THIS is how the speaker should be used.

REPLAY VALUE:

You can easily experience all this game has to offer in a few hours. There's several things that were put in in an attempt to give this game more depth, but it still doesn't change the fact that this game is severely lacking in it. First of all, there's training modes. Each sport has three training sessions where you accomplish one of the three challenges set before you. Depending on how well you do, you'll earn medals.

In a nod to the DS game Brain Age, there is a thing called a Wii Fitness Age, where you find your "Fitness Age." This is basically how fit you are. It's not really accurate, because it means throwing a couple of random challenges from training at you. You may not be good at a certain sport's challenge but good at another's.

Also, there's a "Mii skill level", which really isn't good for anything but bragging rights. The higher your skill level, the more skilled opponents you face. It's not enough. I say this game could have used a few more sports as well as some different modes instead of just playing a game of one of the sports. Also, this game gets boring over periods longer than an hour. It's best played in short bursts.

MULTIPLAYER:

The multiplayer mode isn't too different from the single player, except instead of playing against computer opponents (or yourself) you'll play against friends. Even though it's not much different, it's great fun to have everyone in the room swinging their Wii remotes. Wii Sports shines in multiplayer.

PROS AND CONS:

+ Great use of the Wii remote and the Miis.
+ Great multiplayer.
+ Easy to pick up and play.
+ Bowling, tennis, baseball.
- Boxing and golf.
- Some games seem too simplified.
- The graphics aren't very good.
- Not much depth.

BUY FACTOR:

This game would be a great buy if it didn't come with the Wii. Everyone should play this game, especially the non-gamers. It's great fun and shouldn't be overlooked just because it's packed-in.

FINAL SCORE: 8.6/ 10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/07