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Who says you have to grow up? Here at SI.com's Game Room, our staffers review the latest sports video game titles to hit the market and welcome your feedback.
  
2/16/2007 11:28:00 AM

Review: Wii Play

By Adam Duerson

In my experience, the most effective way to judge a Wii game is by the size of the crowd it attracts to my abode at the end of a long New York City night and by the number of times said crowd returns to play that same game in the weeks to come. Wii is a communal system, so games should encourage community, right? (Side thought: perhaps this is why Wii has yet to offer online play.)

By that measure, Wii Sports has so far stood leaps and bounds above all else. Even at 3 a.m., "Tennis anyone?" is still met with cries of "I got first!" Likewise, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz still holds some drawing power (wee hour hammer throws, sling shots and home run derbies being favorites). And Super Swing Golf? That one never really caught on with the late night crowd. Having recently added Wii Play to the repetoire, I think it's safe to say that fishing and ping-pong (two of the nine games on Play) will be early morning mainstays for some time to come.

Wii Play
Wii Play :: Table Tennis :: Nintendo
For those unfamiliar, Wii Play is a collection of "games" (ping-pong, pool, air hockey, skeet shoot, fishing...) that almost identically mimicks the setup of Wii Sports (which had tennis, baseball, bowling, etc.). Presumably there will also be a Wii Activities title with crocheting and paint-by-numbers somewhere down the line. In fact, it's probably best to approach Play as a Sports sequel of sorts, especially since Play similarly serves as a tutorial on the functions of the Wii remote.

In Play, gameplay pits competitors against each other using the same Mii avitars that were created for Wii Sports and the setup is the same as in Sports: choose any of nine games and go head-to-head or earn medals by achieving benchmarks in individual competition. There is also a similar mixture of frustratingly simple children's fare and absurdly innovative two-player games, the most addictive of these being Fishing. Here, one or two players dangle remotes into an over-stocked pond like they would a reel-and-rod, then wait for Wii-nibbles—vibrations on the remote—before yanking back their prey. Gameplay is fast and encourages competition (for example: you can scare fish away from your opposing angler by splashing your lure around), plus it's pretty simple to follow: points go to the biggest and most plentiful fish. If I'm making the decisions at Nintendo of America, this is exactly the type of thing I blow up into a stand alone fishing title.

Play's take on Ping-Pong is more akin to Tennis in its head-to-head competitiveness, but uses a completely different racket/paddle control system. Instead of swinging a remote, you simply aim and move your padel using a cursor, much like a laser pointer. The effect appears very similar to Wii Sports' Tennis, perhaps, but at times it's too fast, and it's certainly not as impressive to watch as Tennis for a bystander. (Remember: community.)

Wii Play
Wii Play :: Laser Hockey :: Nintendo
The same pointer system is used in Laser Hockey (which plays like a souped-up Pong) and in the Shooting Range. For anyone who's played the dive bar staple Big Buck Hunter, the Shooting Range is pretty derivative: the boucing can and shoot-the-U.F.O. missions are ripped straight from Buck. But it's also encouraging to see how well point-and-shoot can be pulled off with the remote. With any luck, a full-fledged version of Buck Hunter will make its way to the Wii soon enough. Rip-off or not, I'm already a range junky.

As far as utility goes, Play's take on Pool is the only game besides Fishing that uses the remote in a realistic manner, and perhaps it suffers for it, too. It is difficult to imagine a remote as a pool cue, so controlling the aim and strength of a shot in Play's nine-ball game take a little too much figuring out for the plug-and-play Wii set. I liken it to the darts game that appears in Super Monkey Ball. When you pull back and throw a remote like you would a dart, something feels all wrong. Same goes for an imaginary pool stick.

The rest of Play acts as a series of tutorials on how the controller can be employed, including a Find Mii game that, in simplest terms, plays like Where's Waldo. Of course, since Play is all about the Wii remote Nintendo has packaged one with every Play game. Nice idea guys. But I might have appreciated it more three months ago... Back when the system came out... Before I went out and bought a set of four controllers myself. Thanks.

Ratings System (1 to 10)
Game Play: 7.5
Wii Play is ALL ABOUT gameplay, and it's handled with mixed results. Nintendo's best efforts are demonstrated in Fishing and Ping-Pong. But they leave much to be desired with Air Hockey.
Graphics: 5
You get exactly what you're expecting from Wii, especially given what we saw in Wii Sports: Characters that resemble PlayMobil toys and cartoony backdrops, with a touch of anime. Nintendo knows the Wii's restraints and plays well within them.
Replayability: 10
This is strictly case-by-case. Play can grow pretty tiring if you're fiddling around by yourself or simply trying to earn a Gold Medal in Pool. But add an opponent (or a group of competitors) and Wii Play is at its best.
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Posted: 12:36 PM, March 06, 2007   by Anonymous
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