While the Wii MotionPlus accessory was released last month alongside EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis, Wii Sports Resort is the first game from Nintendo that utilizes the 1:1 motion control upgrade and, to get straight to the point, does so to great avail. The majority of the games in the Wii Sports Resort package really show off just what this little add-on can do and the package does a great job of providing just enough variety and depth while keeping things simplistic to keep any gamer of any age and demographic satisfied.
Thumbs Up: Swordplay, Air Sports, Archery, Table Tennis, Golf, Bowling
Thumbs Down: Cycling, Frisbee, Lack of Online Play
Eh…: Wakeboarding, Basketball, Canoeing, Power Cruising
Of the twelve games in the Wii Sports Resort package, the one that is destined to become the life of the party, and rightfully so, is definitely Swordplay. Not only does Swordplay offer a near flawless 1:1 level of control over the Wii Remote but the three games included in this category are all very well done. First off, there is a Dual mode in which a player can either take on a CPU Mii opponent or a friend in a sword fight and naturally the controls act as expected. Slash the Wii remote in the angle you wish to attack, and hold the B button to parry attacks. Fights are quick, simple, and intuitive.
The other two modes, Speed Slice, which is a speed and precision competition best played with another friend in the room, and the engaging Showdown mode which I covered in-depth in my early hands-on are just as fun as the Dual mode and will surely provide hours of playtime for anyone who has ever dreamed of being a samurai warrior. All in all, the Swordplay mode is really able to show what’s possible with the Wii Motion Plus add-on and allows the dreams of amazing Wii Star Wars lightsaber games and 1:1 Zelda sword fights to be a little more grounded in reality.
The surprise hit of the Wii Sports Resort package though is “Air Sports”. The first game of the Air Sports mode is Skydiving which is used as a very clever introduction to Resort the first time that the player boots up up the game and becomes a fun little mini-game in which the player must catch other skydivers and maneuver them to face towards a camera for bonus points later on. In fact, I found myself coming back to the Skydiving mode quite often in my review run-through of the game due to the fact that it’s not too deep, not too challenging and most importantly, it’s fun. Something is just naturally charming about falling through the sky while holding hands with the other friends who have Miis on your console as well as the Miis that are imported into the game through the Check Mii Out channel. In one run, I even found myself falling through the skies with Shigeru Miyamoto, the late Billy Mays, Scott Pilgrim, and Dr. House in one play-through.
The Island Flyover is also another great game included in the Air Sports mode. Essentially, the player is asked to track down as many of the 80 information symbols that are scattered around Wuhu Island as they can in a matter of five minutes. And, while the ultimate objective is to fly around the island in a small plane and collect these symbols, the player is not necessarily limited to only doing this; They can blow up balloons, shoot flares and, in a VS. mode, can even dogfight with each other. The plane is controlled by holding the Wii Remote and Motion Plus like a paper airplane and allows the player to intuitively explore the island without ever having to jump over a control barrier. The Air Sports mode, simply, is a joy to play.
Archery is another mode in Wii Sports Resort that just feels right. This mode utilizes the Nunchuk controller along with the Wii Motion Plus and the controls really make the player feel as though they are pulling back a bowstring and, despite only having one mode, provides an experience that is worth coming back to again and again. The same can be said for the Table Tennis mode which really allows the players to put arcs and spins on the ball that were not possible in the original Wii Sports Tennis, and the newly upgraded Golf and Bowling modes which feel as close to the real thing as one could hope to get in a game.
However, not all of the games in the package are as fun as the sports I have already mentioned. For example Cycling, which controlled by using your hands to pedal with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, is not fun. Everything in the mode from the cyclist’s health meter that seems to have no logical way of tracking the player’s stamina to the very idea of pedaling a bike with your hands feels very unpolished and forced. Not to mention, the sport is very shallow with the only single player option being a road race against 29 other CPU players and one VS mode that allows a race for up to two players. Outside of Cycling, none of the games are really bad though.
That said, there are some games that are fun the first few times they are played and then will never be touched again. For example, the 3-Point Contest in Basketball is a great way to teach players the basic rhythm of shooting a basketball and arcing a shot but when the Pickup Game mode is unlocked which provides a 3-on-3 basketball experience, the 3-Point Contest is rendered obsolete. Power Cruising is another mode that is fun the first few times that it’s played but one quickly realizes that the mode is very shallow and doesn’t provide the same exhilaration that Nintendo’s own Wave Race series has done in the past.
Another example of a game included in Resort that is only fun in certain situations is Canoeing. While Canoeing really seems to read the movements of the Wii Remote as a canoe paddle, it doesn’t provide a strong enough control feel to make the player come back again and again. That said, if you can get three other players with three Motion Plus enabled Wii Remotes, the competitive mode of Canoeing can be really fun.
As for the two remaining sports I have yet to mention, Wakeboarding and Frisbee, the player’s mileage may vary. Personally, I had a great time with the Wakeboarding mini-game included in the title which provides a fun arcade-style experience but for someone who is looking for a game to show off the Motion Plus technology, this is not the game to do it with. The Frisbee mode, on the other hand, reads the player’s movements so precisely that it actually makes the game extremely difficult to get used to. Naturally, this creates a very strange control disconnect with the rest of the package.
In the end though, when one weighs all the ups and downs of Wii Sports Resort, it is impossible not to recommend this title to anyone who currently owns a Wii. Not only does the bundled Wii Motion Plus control scheme take a technological leap over the original Wii Remote’s waggle controls but the majority of the games in the package also do a fantastic job of showing off just what the add-on can do. Wii Sports Resort is a worthy sequel that no Wii owner should go without.
Vice Verdict: MUST BUY
Popularity: 2% [?]
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Great review. I was wondering whether or not I would pick this up but after reading this and wathcing’s G4’s 5 out of 5 review I feel pretty confident saying that this will be worth a purchase.
Just noticed that my comment went through twice, lol. I thought it didn’t go through before so if a mod could fix that…
Eager much? XD
Thanks for the comments though. Appreciate that you read my work.
I actually like Basketball and Cycling the best so while your review is definitely well-written, I’d have to say that the games will probably all appeal to different people.