Wii Sports Resort: A Reivew
by Wayne Cole

When the Wii launched in 2006, its flagship title was Wii Sports.  Wii Sports was a glorified demo of the Wiimote’s capabilities, but despite that it turned out to be the most popular title on the console.  Its simple appearance and game play hid a very fine tuned game that is perfect for the casual gamer, while somehow also pulling people into it for hours at a time.  It is the game that propelled the Wii into success and was meant to show game developers just what could be done with the innovative new controls.  Unfortunately game creators did not take the hint, and few games since truly take advantage of the controller.  Most have just replaced button mashing with Wii shaking.  Despite failing to usher in a new wave of game invocation from manufacturers it did succeed in showing customers what the potential of the system was.

With the success of Wii Sports, it is safe to say that Wii Sports Resort has to once again raise the bar  to be worthy of the name.  This time the new technology being demoed comes in the form of an attachment called Wii MotionPlus and gives the Wiimote a greater ability to sense player movement.  This is most clearly seen in games like swordplay, frisbee, and tabletop tennis where you are holding objects that move completely freely in your hands as you twist and turn the controller.  The impact of Wii Sports on the system is undeniable, but can Wii Sports Resort and the new Wii MotionPlus live up to the original?

The game intro tries to pull you in and get you excited about the new technology.  Unfortunately the first time you play the game you have to sit through a three minute video explaining how to hook up that technology.  There is no magic “I’m not an idiot just load the game” button to let you skip past the video either.  Once you do get past this tutorial — assuming you didn’t break your TV from throwing your controller at it — your Mii goes into a skydiving mini-game.  It is an amusing introduction to what the controller can do, but you cannot pick your Mii.  In my case, to start the game I had to skydive as my wife instead of myself.   For those that do enjoy this pointless mini-game an expanded version is included in the Air Sports section.   Minor changes like the addition of legs and Wii Fit inspired menus are welcome additions.

I have gotten more questions about Swordplay than the rest of the game combined.  Under the Swordplay category there are three games.  Duel is a fight on top of a raised platform where the goal is to knock your opponent off into the water.  The sword does move exactly like you are holding it and shows the true potential for a sword fighting game.  Unfortunately the AI is ridiculously easy to defeat at first.  As your score goes up you are presented with more difficult opponents, but to be honest none of them have presented a challenge thus far.  In Speed Slice an item is presented, and you have to slice it in the direction shown on the screen quicker than your opponent.   Finally Showdown is a throwback to all of those old Kung-Fu movies.  You are presented with waves of one hit-point people coming at you, swords raised.   They even included the setting of an old rope bridge.  Overall this category is one of the best in the game and shows the potential for sword fighting games to actually be fun.  Of course it is now up to the game manufacturers to follow through.  Ubisoft is the first to step up to that plate with Red Steel 2 later this year.  Only time will tell if it’s successful or disappoints as much as the original Red Steel.

The hidden gem is Archery.  If you play right handed you hold the Wiimote in your left hand and the nunchuk in your right.  You aim the shot with the Wiimote and pull the arrow back with the nunchuk.  The faster you pull back the nunchuk the faster you will focus on the screen.  Wind and arch have to be taken into account when aiming instead of just setting your sites to the bull’s-eye.  The thwipping sound coming out of the Wiimote’s speaker added an extra level of immersion into the game.  I hope that if there is another Legend of Zelda game for the Wii, it will steal this mechanic.

A few other games deserve noting, but there are far too many for in-depth reviews.   Bowling, Golf, and Tabletop Tennis all got mechanical upgrades from previous versions in the Wii series.  Frisbee Golf was a true standout on this game by far overshadowing the Frisbee Dog that unlocks it.  Wakeboarding was surprisingly fun, but the directions are not the most intuitive.  Finally Dogfight is an aerial battle between planes to gather balloons and shoot your opponent’s balloons.  The flight controls are simply the best I have ever experienced on a flying game.  Dogfight and Skydiving leave me hoping for both a more advanced jetfighter game and a superhero game.

Every game can’t be good though, and Wii Sports Resort has a few that either needed more work or just aren’t fun.  The game that stands out most in this category is Cycling.  You are riding a bicycle by moving the Wiimote and nunchuk up and down rapidly.  You steer by tilting them left, right, and up.  The mechanic is not fun and leaves you exhausted by the end of the race.  It isn’t innovative game play and I don’t see any reason the MotionPlus is even needed for this.  Also, a personal pet peeve of mine with game developers is that they don’t realize that most people HATE split screen multiplayer mode.  For games like cycling it is necessary, but for Duel most players don’t need to see thru their character’s eyes just to fight.  The recently released Punch-Out also suffers from this.

Final Recommendation:  Wii Sports Resort buy, rent, or avoid?  BUY.  It will quickly become your new go to game to show people what the Wii is like.  Now if only it actually represented what most Wii games were like.