Wii Play

"We Play Wii Play"

Well, here's my review of Wii Play. It's already pretty long, so I won't talk much here. This is an okay game, meant to showcase the Wii remote's intuitive capabilities. The main reason most buy it is for the free remote (which makes the game worth the ten dollars), and that's probably a good reason. The game is kind of shallow for fifty bucks, so packaging it with a free remote was a smart, sales-invoking idea. Now, before I bore you already, I'll delve into the individual games and give short word on a few other aspects of the game. Make sure you have a few minutes.

Individual Games:

Shooting Range: 7/10
The Shooting Range is pretty much a remake of the old Duck Hunt game. You line up the crosshairs by pointing the remote and blast away with “B”. Except you rarely actually get to shoot ducks, and the dog from the original has taken a sick day. Instead of blastin' ducks (who do fly past rarely), you'll shoot all kinds of things, from balloons, to targets, to clay disks, to cans, and then finally alien spaceships.

The first four levels are pretty easy and straightforward; it's Level 5 that shakes things up the most. Five of your Miis are being attacked by aliens, and only you can save them from abduction. Blast away at the attacking ships and earn bonus points for each survivor.

This game is fairly fun and moderately challenging, but it's one of the best games in the pack and can provide some entertainment.

Find Mii: 6/10
This is a slightly different Where's Waldo-esque game that involves finding certain combinations of your own and some computer-generated Miis, such as two look-alikes, three look-alikes, the sleepyhead, the fastest Mii, a certain Mii, or odd Mii(s) out. You point with the remote and press “A” to select a Mii.

The difficulty, locations, and whether the Miis walk, swim, or stand is random. It can be a pretty fun game and is different every time, but it can sometimes be frustrating and isn't all that easy to do well. The two-player mode can be a little more fun, but isn't much different.

Find Mii is one of the better games; it's not great, but it's not as horrible as some upcoming ones, and it can provide good entertainment.

Table Tennis: 3/10
Ah, the dreaded ping-pong. Now don't get me wrong; ping-pong's great, but this version isn't. It's not really even ping-pong. The one-player mode is a joke. It's impossible to win the game (the computer blocks every shot), but instead, the idea is to see how many times in a row you can volley the ball back and forth between you and the CPU. That wouldn't be real bad, but the controls don't really work for this game. Sometimes the disembodied hand will just drop the paddle, or get you an obstruction penalty, or not move at all, and the controls don't even feel like ping-pong.

The two-player mode is a little better (You actually get to play ping-pong now!), but still suffers from the same control issues. The prospect of ping-pong on Wii sounds cool, but this first attempt at it is just pitiful. The main thing that salvaged the game (and brought it up from 2 points to 3) was that you could actually play a pretty decent game in two-player mode.

Table Tennis is a good idea but poorly executed.

Pose Mii: 2/10
This and Table Tennis are easily the two worst games in the collection. The prospect of the game is to pose your Mii in one of three different poses (controlled by the “A” and “B” buttons) and then tilt the Wiimote at the right angle to line the Mii up with a certain pose silhouette in the falling bubbles, popping them. You line up the pose with the hole on a bubble, Pop!, you press “B” twice to switch poses again, drag it over to a bubble, tilt it at the correct angle, pop! Repeat until three bubbles escape your grasp and reach the bottom of the screen.

This game may be fun the first few times around, but it gets very old and very boring after awhile. It's pretty hard to even get a silver medal on this one, and two-player mode is only a tad better, competing to pop the most bubbles and get the most points. I'm not quite sure how this game came about, but even the premise isn't very good.

It's okay, but it's just a pretty bad game all around, and you probably won't play it much after your first few plays.

Laser Hockey: 8/10
I'd say this is probably the second best Wii Play game. It's a neon version of Pong, where you hold the Wiimote in the regular position and move around on your side of the table to hit the neon ball into the opponent's neon goal, while protecting your own neon goal. You can bank off neon walls and slow things down with your neon backside. The ability to tilt the remote in order to angle your staple-shaped puck adds depth to the game play, but trying to hit fast and powerful shots often results in missing all together.

In a one-player game you have to score as many goals as you can within the time limit, regardless of how many times you're scored on, but with two players, you duke it out ‘till someone scores seven points (I believe it is) to win.

This is a great game and can be fun and entertaining past your first few plays.

Billiards: 7/10
In Billiards (which is actually a variation of nine ball), you use the remote as a cue stick and attempt to hit each of the numbered balls into one of the six pockets chronologically. If the cue ball lands in one of the pockets, hits a ball other than the next chronological one, or comes off the table, it is considered a foul, and you will lose points, as well as allowing yourself (or your opponent in two-player) to place the cue ball anywhere on the table.

In single player, you must hit each ball into a pocket (chronologically, of course) in the least number of turns possible, while in two-player, you must score more points than your opponent (You get the same number of points as the number written on the ball you hit into a pocket, unless you foul). The controls are pretty well laid out, but there are some rare errors with release and power.

Another great Wii Play game, Billiards is okay alone, and pretty fun with an opponent.

Fishing: 4/10
I've seen mixed opinions about this game, but I don't think it's too great. You must fish in a kiddy pool with paper fish and poor graphics, hoping to catch the big one. There are several different types of fish, each worth different amounts, which you aim to catch. The “bonus” fish (noted at the top at the screen) will earn you double the points for catching that particular fish as long as it remains the bonus fish. Once in a while, annoying Small Fries will intervene and try to make you catch them, causing you to lose points.

I guess the idea behind this game is good, but the actual game isn't. Controls are okay, but sometimes a message will show up at the bottom, blocking the screen and refusing to go away, or your pole will just freeze and refuse to move. It can also be hard to get the pole where you want it to go, and either player can real in a hooked fish in two-player mode (so you can catch a fish that wasn't even on your line if you time it correctly). The aforementioned two-player mode is identical, except that you are competing against another player for the top score.

The bad graphics and shallow game play add another bad game to the mix.

Charge!: 7/10
Here's another fun game: Charge! In this game, you turn the Wiimote on its side and race macramé cows through a barnyard, navigating the path, jumping the hurdles, and knocking over as many scarecrows as you can in the process (Man, who comes up with these games?).

In one-player, it's a race against the clock to see how many scarecrows you can knock over (including the extra point-giving mobile scarecrows) and whether or not you can get to the finish in time. Your score depends on how many ‘crows you knock over and how much time you have left when you cross the finish line. In a multiplayer game, it's a race down a never-ending track to see who can knock over the most before time runs out.

It can be fun to knock down scarecrows, and two-player adds a competitive element.

Tanks: 9/10
And I've saved the best for last: Tanks! I'd say this is probably the best game in the collection. You have a little tank, which you must use to clear out the other tanks that inhabit the level, similar to the game Contra. The controls are pretty simple—aim by pointing the remote at the screen, navigate the playing field by using either the control pad or the nunchuck, fire with “B”, and use “A” to drop mines.

All you have to do is maneuver your tank around the level and destroy all other tanks via mines, missiles, or their own ricocheted shots. Once all the tanks are destroyed, you move on to the next level, which is slightly more difficult than the last. Different kinds of enemy tanks (e.g. regular, immobile, heat seekers, mine droppers, invisible, etc.) also add skill to the game.

This game is pretty addicting, and you'll probably play this one the most. The only two-player difference is that you play co-op to see how far you can make it. Tanks is great fun—the best in the collection—and is always addicting and fun to try to conquer. In both single- and two-player, this game's a blast!

Other Quickies:

Graphics: 6/10
The graphics aren't too good, but they don't need to be for most of the games (don't even bring up Fishing), and serve most games pretty well.

Controls: 7/10
The controls work pretty well and suit most of the games, but most of the games also suffer from subtle control glitches, and for some, a better control scheme could have been thought out.

Multiplayer: 7/10
This game is pretty good for multiplayer (albeit only two players can play at a time). Most of the games are fun with an opponent, some suffer in two-player, some feel almost exactly the same, and some are better played alone, depending on your personality, but I think multiplayer works pretty on this game overall.

Replay Value: 7/10
The replay value on this game is pretty good (considering you can go back and play any game at any time, striving to get that medal on Tanks or schooling your friend in Billiards for the fourth time), assuming you want to replay the game. Some of the games, like Tanks, Charge!, Laser Hockey, Billiards, and possibly Find Mii and the Shooting Gallery, will have you coming back for more often, while others will only see one or two extra play-throughs.

The Final Word:

Phew, bet you were waiting for this, right? Sorry it's so lengthy, but thanks for reading it through (Although just taking a glance at each aspect's score is acceptable.). In conclusion, about a quarter of the games excel, about half do okay, and the other quarter falls flat. The game in general is alright, but it doesn't showcase the Wii remote's abilities as well as it could, and I think it's only worth the buy if you don't have four ‘motes already. For ten dollars, this game is a steal. But not for fifty. Maybe for thirty. The overall average is just over six, so I'll round up.

Final Score: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/08, Updated 06/17/08

Game Release: Wii Play (US, 02/12/07)