"Okay game, just don’t expect it to rival Wii Sports"

Nintendo really seems to have struck gold with the Wii, which still, half a year after its release is selling like hotcakes, with demand continuing to exceed supply. Alongside this new console Nintendo has also established what promises to be an extremely successful franchise, consisting of the so-called Wii games. Two have already been released, and two more (Wii Health Pack and Wii Music) are well on their way. The star attraction in its field of games is so far Wii Sports, the game bundled with the Wii in Europe and the US, and arguably the Wii's main system seller, eclipsing even Zelda: Twilight Princess in this regard. It also provided the most fun I've had with a launch game since Super Mario 64. With such a promising start to the series, you'd be inclined to expect that the second of the Wii games would be a real treat as well, right? Well, prepare to be disappointed, as Wii Play isn't even half the game Wii Sports is.

But first, one should keep in mind that Wii Play isn't really a full game at all, it's more like a demo, designed to demonstrate some of the more basic uses for the Wiimote with its nine minigames. And coincidentally the game comes bundled with a Wiimote, or rather, the Wiimote comes bundled with this game, considering that Wii Play only adds ten extra bucks to the standard price of a Wiimote. This bargain is also the only reason for you to even consider getting this game in the first place, and even so, making the purchase is far from a no-brainer, as this review will explain. Lets find out a bit more about Wii Play then:

How does it look and sound?

Wii Play basically employs the same visual style as Wii Sports, meaning it's clean, smooth and colorful, but also extremely simple, lacking in details, flashy effects or anything you'd normally associate with a next-gen game (or even a game hailing from the PS2-GameCube-Xbox era). While the visuals hardly play a major role in the Wii Play experience, the complete lack of eye-candy makes the game all the more dependent on the minigames themselves being up to scratch. The same goes for the sound, Wii Play does feature a handful of pleasant, though forgettable tune, and that's pretty much it. Considering how Wii Sports got by with minimalistic graphics and sound, the technical deficiencies of Wii Play don't constitute a death sentence, but can't be said to be helping either.

How are the minigames?

Featuring nine minigames compared to Wii Sports' five sports, Wii Play seemingly enjoys a considerable advantage, but that's only on the face of it. After all, all of Wii Sports' five games were good for hours of entertainment, which certainly can't be said about the nine games Wii Play features. You'd be better off comparing them to the fifteen practice games in Wii Sports, not its real games.

Exactly what games does Wii Play boast? For starters, there's Shooting Range, a target-shooting game where you point at the screen and take out the targets that appear over a couple of short rounds. Its pretty enjoyable, and Wiimote control works very well, but once you get a really good score there's no reason to be coming back. Following it is Find Mii, where you have to pick out the right Mii (homemade avatars) out of a pack, using the Wiimote to point at the Mii in question. If you're into this kind of Where's Waldo-esque gameplay it should keep you busy for a while, if not, give it a miss

Pose Mii also uses the Miis, and sees you having to pose the Mii characters in different positions, matching one out of three different poses as the pace becomes more and more frantic to increase the challenge. Mildly entertaining the first time, you'll tire after a couple of tries. Table Tennis has you controlling a ping-pong paddle and returning serves (the number of returned serves being counted for the final score), the only thing needed to do this being placing the paddle where the ball comes, resulting in a returned serve. It's awfully primitive, and as a result you won't return to it after achieving a decent score. Laser Hockey is basically a game of Pong, only with added bells and whistles, as well as Wiimote-controls. You're really playing against an opponent this time around, adding a competitive element absent in the other games, but while it provides for a couple of good matches, it hardly has the staying power to keep you coming back for more.

Billiards is the most ambitious game of the bunch, being a pool game where you use the Wiimote as a cue stick, the goal being to strike the cue ball in such a way that the ball targeted is sunk. Though the controls can be sticky, it is still the most impressive of Wii Play's games, yet the lack of playing-modes means it still can't compare to any of the Wii Sports games. Fishing is on the other hand possibly the least impressive game of the lot, you just use the Wiimote as a fishing rod to pull out fishes, with only a few different types of fishes diversifying proceedings. Boring.

Charge!, a game where you ride a cow and score points by running over scarecrows is however quite enjoyable, largely due to the controls: Holding the Wiimote sideways, you tip it right or left, or forward or backwards depending on whether you want to turn right or left, increase or decrease the speed. This will for many be the first demonstration of how the Wiimote is used in racing games, and can serve a warm up before games like Need For Speed and Excite Truck. The final game is Tanks!, a topdown game using the Nunchuck as well as the Wiimote, where you have to destroy all the other tanks in a room to advance to the next. It has a number of different stages, with different obstacles and tanks, and the tanks use different kinds of weapons in their attempt to destroy you. Fun game, though a drawback is the realization that the gameplay and concept, save the control-system, would hardly have pushed the original Game Boy to its limits. Next-gen gameplay indeed....

How well does the Wiimote work?

The Wiimote-controls mostly work very well, the controls are responsive, precise and rarely a cause of frustration. That said, the uses of the Wiimote are mostly limited (with a couple of exceptions) to pointing at the screen and moving up and down, back and forth while pressing some button. Unlike Wii Sports, there is no opportunity to really get the heart pumping, as the games involve only minor physical movements. This is a shame, as a major part of the fun of Wii Sports was how the games (whether they having swinging the baseball bat, hitting the green or throwing punches at your boxing opponent) involved some serious physical movement, eventually resulting in a good workout and a different kind of gaming experience. Wii Play on the other hand, offers no such feeling.

How long will the game last?

With even the best of the minigames quickly getting boring and achieving good scores being easy to accomplish, Wii Play provides only a handful of hours of gameplay. One could argue that with its pick up and play accessibility, the game is well suited for a quick five minute playthrough every other day by the busy gamer, but considering how many AAA games from past gaming generations (like Perfect Dark on the N64 and Smash Brothers Melee for the GameCube) have that very same quality, it really serves little purpose to return back to Wii Play after you have gotten a good score on each minigame. However, with its sharply reduced pricetag, a couple of hours of mildly entertaining minigames doesn't represent such a bad deal overall.

Should you get it?

Well, the answer to that question depends on why you would consider getting this game in the first place. If you're considering buying it because you want a new, good party-game for the Wii, the answer is no. As a stand-alone game, judged as full-price purchase Wii Play seems like something of a joke, and you're far better off with games such as WarioWare Smooth Moves, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Mario Party 8. If you just want another Wiimote and don't mind paying ten bucks extra for a relatively enjoyable collection of minigames, Wii Play is worth it. Just don't expect it to rival Wii Sports.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/07