Submitted Article - Nintendo Wii - All About The Nintendo Wii

Wii Play For Nintendo Wii

When the Nintendo Wii first launched, it came packaged with the brilliant Wii Sports which highlighted the ability of the console’s motion detection as well as the ability of Nintendo to get you up and moving when you are playing a game. The extremely simple and intuitive design led to hours of addictive gameplay. This came with a free game, probably one of the best pack-in demos ever released with a console.

Hot off the heels of Wii Sports comes Wii Play, another tech demo from Nintendo that involves the careful use of the Wii Remote in very simple yet addictive games from our every day lives. Bringing back the increasingly rampant Mii sprites, Wii Play is less active sport gaming though, and more formless mini-games.

The game starts off with only one mini-game, the duck hunt derived shooting range game that doesn’t offer much in the way of unlockable goals or replay, but still shows off the ability of the Wii-Remote as a light gun. However, later games are much less interesting and feel like filler rather than successful tech demo. The “Find Mii” game is basically a Where’s Waldo with your Mii, not a game you’ll likely play more than once (to unlock the next game) unless you’re a small child.

Table Tennis sounds like a novel idea, especially after the enormous success and fun of Wii Tennis in the Sports package, but it’s essentially just a chance to rally back and forth between yourself and the computer or an opponent for as long as possible. Without the structure of a given match, it’s not entirely entertaining and has little reason to return and try again and again to beat the higher rated opponents.

Laser Hockey, extremely simple in concept, is one of the better games available, mainly because it makes for a good two player experience and its air hockey with a Wii Remote.  It’s a very simple game with basic gameplay and that’s what worked so well for Wii Sports.

Similarly Billiards is a fun experience, utilizing your Wii Remote as a pool cue. The physics, like many of Nintendo’s Wii outings are incredibly accurate and the ability to control things like spin and power with ease make it a great experience. The only problem is the lack of features. Billiards only offers a simple 8 ball game, in which you sink the balls in order from 1 to 8.

Wii Play is generally a very unorganized, feature sparse outing that tries to do what Wii Sports did with Mini-games. Without the revolutionary appeal of gameplay and endless multiplayer intrigue of Wii Sports, though, Wii Play is just a very basic collection that will leave you bored quickly. Of course, the package comes complete with a Wii Remote for the price of a regular Wii game, meaning you’ll only be paying $10 for the game itself, and the two or three mini-games that do work are probably worth that price tag.