Nintendo’s new-generation home console, Wii, has been on the market just a few short months, and already, it has garnered a reputation for being the video game console for the casuals – the non-gamers. The system launched in North America with pack-in success Wii Sports, which quickly made Nintendo’s new console the talk of the town throughout holiday ‘06. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Big N packed Wii consoles with a different title: Wii Play.
Finally, the company has brought Wii Play to North American Wii owners. If you aren’t familiar with what Wii Play is all about, don’t fret. The game is a compilation of nine different mini-games, each taking unique advantage of the Wii remote. While Wii Sports came with every Wii sold in the United States for free, Wii Play will run you $49.99, but it also comes with a Wii controller – a $39.99 value by itself. So, essentially, you are paying ten smackers for this game.
The question, of course, is is it worth it? We can answer that up front: as a game, it’s not. However, if you are in the market for a new Wii remote, we highly recommend picking up Wii Play, as it comes with one along with an at-times-fun mini-games compilation.
For those looking for more information about Wii Play and why we’ve given the suggestion we have, keep reading. We’ve written a review that’s a little different than your traditional review, but it’s been tailored just for you. Below, you’ll find our critique of each of the nine mini-games in Wii Play, along with either a thumbs up or thumbs down rating in regards to whether or not we like it.
Shooting Range
Shoot Range plays similarly to Duck Hunt of yesteryear. If you grew up with the NES and that title, then you’re going to feel the nostalgia the second you play this. The main difference between Nintendo’s twenty-year-old duck-hunting shooter and Wii Play’s Shooting Range is cosmetic, for the most part. You spend most your time shooting down Frisbees, balloon, targets and so forth here, although the game challenges you to shoot down other objects the further into it you get. For example, towards the end of each round, UFOs will begin trying to abduct your Mii characters, and you must shoot them down to keep them from escaping with your Mii.
Playing this by yourself isn’t nearly as fun as playing with a friend. There’s a certain level of competiveness involved, and it makes Shooting Range pretty fun at times. Also, unlike Duck Hunt on NES, you are not pointing at the screen itself when shooting at targets but at the sensor bar, so the experience is perceptibly different.
The verdict? Thumbs up.
Find Mii
Do you remember ‘Where’s Waldo?†If you do, then you’re already familiar with what Find Mii is all about. Like the Martin Handford books that you grew up with, you’re challenged to find specific Miis in this mini-game. For example, some mini-games require you to find three of the same Miis. One calls on you to click on the Mii that looks like your very own Mii. Another asks you to spot the fastest moving Mii on screen.
Like most mini-games in Wii Play, Find Mii is considerably more entertaining when played with two people. The screen is often populated by gobs of Miis, creating a cluttered field of characters to sort through. The game quickly snowballs into frantic fun, as you rush to beat your opponent to finding the specified Miis. By itself, it is pretty boring, unfortunately. As a multiplayer game, however, it is fun despite its simplistic design.
The verdict? Thumbs up.
Table Tennis
We knew we liked Table Tennis the moment we played it at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. in 2006. The name is indicative of what the gameplay is like. You play a game of table tennis – also known as ping pong – from an overhead perspective. With the Wii remote, you move your paddle back and forth by pointing. The result is a game of pong, really. Even decades after Atari’s video game by the same name, the concept can be fun, apparently.
While it’s infinitely more fun to play with a friend, Table Tennis is still fairly enjoyable by yourself, playing against a CPU.
The bottom line is this is a fun mini-game and one of our favorites in Wii Play. However, it is unfortunate that its lasting appeal will probably be curt for many.
The verdict? Thumbs up.
Pose Mii
Pose Mii challenges you to match your on-screen Mii with other bubbled Miis. Words can’t accurately describe just what is going down on screen when you’re actually playing Pose Mii, as this is an odd and even queer effort by Nintendo. Using the Wii-mote, you move your Mii around screen, rotating it to try and match other falling bubbled-Miis.
At times, Pose Mii is fun, but more often than not, it fails to entertain for more than a minute or two. Even with two people playing the game, it leaves much to be desired.
The verdict? Thumbs down.
Laser Hockey
Another favorite in Wii Play is Laser Hockey. This is Nintendo’s take on air hockey in case you didn’t guess. Using the Wii remote, you take turns smacking a puck back and forth across a table with lasers making up its borders. The game plays much like Table Tennis, but it manages to deliver a distinctly different experience, somehow.
Controlling Laser Hockey, unfortunately, is a little aggravating at times. In real life, smacking a puck to increase the speed at which it travels into your opponent’s territory is as easy as pulling your hand back and swinging it forward. In this virtual iteration of air hockey, on the other hand, the concept is not simulated without flaws. You control your on-screen hand and mallet by pointing at the screen with the Wii-mote. The only way to hit the puck any harder is by moving your on-screen mallet either to the left or right and then forward immediately. This can be a somewhat awkward gesture at times, resulting in you missing the puck entirely or sending it flying in a completely different direction than desired. The process is a bit annoying.
This problem noted, we like Laser Hockey and think it has a wide appeal.
The verdict? Thumbs up.
Billiards
Playing pool with the Wii-mote is an un-mastered science, but at the same time, it’s a new one. We imagine some day that a developer will erect a control scheme and formula that surpasses the one in Billiards. Still, what’s here is decent. Pool buffs can get into the nitty gritty, taking their time to perfectly aim and shoot their ball across the table, and they’ll like it. However, this is the slowest paced mini-game in Wii Play, and for some, that might be a turn off.
For the most part, controlling the game is easy enough. However, the game requires that you pull back your cue and rush it forward to hit a ball, which just isn’t comfortable with the Wii-mote. This is an inherent flaw with the Wii controller itself, rather than the game, so it can be forgiven without much effort.
Regardless, this is one of the more polished games in Wii Play and deserves a thumbs up.
The verdict? Thumbs up.
Fishing
We’re not sure how Nintendo managed to do it, but they’ve designed a fishing game for Wii that removes any kind of fun or entertainment that could possibly be derived by such a game. Controlling this mini-game is more frustrating than any other game in Wii Play, and we wish we could remove the game from our copy. Okay, so, we’re being a little raffish. But we’d be surprised if anybody was genuinely impressed or entertained by Fishing in Wii Play. The control mechanics are sloppy, requiring you to hold your arm out for lengthy amounts of time if you ever want to actually catch a fish, which can be and is tiring. We can think of several ways to create a fun fishing mini-game – see Twilight Princess, for example – and this is not one of them.
Skip it.
The verdict? Thumbs down.
Charge
We appreciate what Nintendo tried to do with Charge. You hold the remote sideways, NES style, and lean it forward to drive your cow forward. The goal is to make it to the end of the track, navigating around obstacles in your way. Truth is, this mini-game isn’t all that bad. However, it’s too simple, and for many, it just won’t keep your attention for long at all. In order to increase the speed at which your cow runs, you must point the remote downwards, which doesn’t work particularly well. Thankfully, steering is better, but acceleration control is a notable mar in Charge’s design. We’re all about cow riding, but it doesn’t work on Wii. Too bad.
The verdict? Thumbs down.
Tanks
The name of the game sounds fun enough: it has the word “tanks†in it. You point at the screen with the Wii-mote, moving your tank forward. The goal is to be the first to shoot down all opposing tanks, which are more often than not located on the furthest side of the map, completely away from your spawn point. Initially, we weren’t that into Tanks, but the more you play it, the more you like it. This isn’t the best game in Wii Sports – at all – but it’s fun at times, even though it starts out very simple. At the end of the day, some gamers are going to like Tanks more than others.
The verdict? Thumbs up.
Final Word
Wii Play is a fun, though incredibly basic collection of mini-games. In truth, the compilation feels more like a tech demo than anything else, which is disappointing considering its price point. Normally, we don’t consider the price of a game a factor in our reviews. Occasionally, however, the subject is of importance, and this is one of those cases. If Wii Play was available for ten bucks, we could much more easily recommend it. Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Billiards and even Find Mii are all fairly fun mini-games. But they aren’t worth $50.
If you’re looking for a Wii controller, on the other hand, this is a smart buy. You’ll get your Wii-mote, and on top of that, you’ll have some fun games that can be coupled with Wii Sports at your Wii multiplayer parties. Unfortunately, Wii Sports this is not. The Nintendo launch game is leaps and bounds more exciting and stimulating than Wii Play.
Casuals are far more likely to be enticed and thus drawn-in by Wii Play than any other audience. Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, can spend their gaming dollar on better Wii software and be more satisfied.
