Wii Sports was, at least for me, unexpectedly great. I was expecting a cool tech demo, and that’s what some of it was (boxing), but tennis and bowling are really great, and golf is good, but needs more holes.

Nintendo has followed Wii Sports with another Wii remote-focused anthology, this time under the moniker Wii Play. It is a collection of 12 minigames. I’ll review them individually. Many of them suck. All of them are utterly simplistic, but on a better note, all of them are two-player enabled. It is worth noting that Wii Play comes with a Wii remote for its $50 price. This is important, because the game could not stand alone. It hardly even stands for $10.

Ping Pong. Wii Sports Tennis, only somehow more simplistic. It’s like Pong– essentially pointing your remote to move a paddle in the way of an incoming ball. No swinging motion required. Verdict: Crap.

Billiards. This is probably the highlight of the package for me. Though it is restricted to only a game of nine ball, it uses the Wii remote well and is pretty deep. Unfortunately, the scoring system is not the standard nine ball, but one where you get points based on the number of the ball you sink. You still have to sink them in order. Sinking the nine ball through a combination off of another ball does not end the game, so a lot of the strategy of nine ball is lost. Still, pretty fun. Verdict: Nice, but I want a real pool game.

Tanks! A clone of the Atari game Combat with the Wii remote. It’s simplistic, but any game where I get to attempt to blow up my friends is okay by me. Verdict: Fun.

Charge! Inexplicably pilot a cow using the Wii remote. Simple, stupid, but hilarious. Verdict: Amusing.

Fishing. An overgrown Mario Party minigame. Use the Wii remote in three dimensional space to catch fish for points. Verdict: Bleh.

Shooting Range. A gun based minigame that is sadly not Duck Hunt. Shoot at targets, ducks and UFOs for a high score. Fun reflex-based game that works well with the Wii remote, but not as much fun as the Wario Ware equivalent, which gets points for insanity. Verdict: Awesome, but not as awesome as Duck Hunt on the Virtual Console will be.

Laser Hockey. Another game kinda like Pong, but it’s drawn like psychedelic air hockey and the paddles twist with the remote as you point it. Better than ping pong. Verdict: Passably fun.

Find Mii. A game of differentiation. You have to find the odd Mii out in various ways. A nice diversion. It’s nice to see my Mii in more games, though. Verdict: Okay.

Pose Mii. Pose a Mii by pressing buttons and twisting and turning the remote. It’s amusing, but there’s no strategy at all. Verdict: Okay.

Overall, Wii Play is merely okay. It seems like these minigames could have been included in Wario Ware: Smooth Moves to strengthen that package, as has happened in past Wario Ware games. It’s alone, though, but bundled with a Wii remote, it becomes palatable.

Wii Play seems like a cheap attempt to fill in the game drought that follows every console launch. The Wii’s isn’t as bad as the PS3′s currently is or the DS’s was, but there’s not much to buy, just lots of pretty fun games you just want to rent. You might as well get Wii Play if you’re going to buy another remote anyway, but don’t expect anything deep.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 12:40 pm and is filed under games, reviews.