Review: Wii Sports Resort
It’s taken its sweet time, but the Wii MotionPlus has finally arrived, offering to fulfill the original motion-sensing promises that the Wii Remote offered back in 2005 and 2006. To show off its capabilities, Nintendo offers us Wii Sports Resort, a package of 12-minigames designed to show you how much fun the Wii is going to be from now on. I don’t know if the MotionPlus is going to be the cure-all fun factory for future games like Red Steel 2, but I can safely say that Wii Sports Resort (hereinafter WSR) uses the device exactly like I had hoped it would.
One thing that you will not ever see in this game is "waggle". Waggle is when a video game shoehorns motion-sensing into their game, essentially replacing a button press with a random motion of the remote. The mini-games in WSR use the device rather carefully and deliberately (for the most part, anyhow), and it’s very satisfying; there are a couple rather noticeable examples of this. In basketball, you can play a pickup game, and as you can imagine, you’d toss the ball with the Wii Remote; if you toss it improperly, without getting enough arc and enough height, your shot is going to miss. With frisbee, the slightest curve of your wrist can (and in my case, does) send your frisbee in a different direction with a lot of curve. In bowling, you can turn your wrist like you would with a real bowling ball, and your ball will curve the way you want it to, and as much as you want it to.
Basically, MotionPlus works with WSR, and it works well. Of course, this doesn’t matter if the game isn’t any fun to play. Fortunately, the mini-games themselves are quite a lot of fun, and in some cases hopelessly addicting. I’ve put together a video of some of the highlights of WSR:
Wakeboarding is extremely simple, but a lot of fun; you curve the Wii Remote with the right timing to do a trick off the boat’s wake, and try to land flat as you can to get big points. Frisbee Golf is satisfying even if you suck horribly at it like I do; the feeling of control you have over your frisbee is rather unprecedented, and even if you are terrible, you get the sense that it’s not the game’s fault (and you can take that as you may). Island Flyover was a surprise hit with my family, as they watched me explore the numerous, oddly interesting sights of Wuhu Island, while my anti-balloon guns ensured that nobody but me was allowed to have fun at any one time.
Bowling returns triumphantly, as I mentioned before, and it brings with it improved controls and increased immersion; you can bowl on a normal ten-pin lane, or if you feel so inclined, you can try out the hilariously fun 100-pin mode for kicks, which is oddly satisfying. Golf is also back, and while it’s not the perfect simulator that Tiger Woods tries to be, it no longer feels like a badly designed game, like it did with the original Wii Sports; it measures the curve of your wrist and the strength of your swing, and translates it meaningfully into your golf swing, for better or worse.
The highlight of the entire package, however, is the fencing. WSR Swordplay is the mindlessly addicting swordfighting title everyone has been waiting for since 2005, and I can assure you it works wonderfully. It is the anti-waggle, as there are no pre-determined gestures or actions; whatever you do with your Wii Remote in your hand, your character will do onscreen with their sword. Press B to block, and if your sword is perpendicular to your opponent’s swing, you’ll catch them off guard and get an opportunity to strike back. The earlier levels are an exercise in swing timing, but the above video shows off the upper echelons of difficulty, where you really need to have quick reflexes and precise swings in order to get the upper hand. I played that game until my shoulder and wrist gave out. It is sublime.
Besides that, there are some games that are technically sound, but don’t really hold one’s attention for a long time, such as canoeing or cycling. Others, like archery and power cruising, were ones that I personally didn’t care for, but I could definitely see others getting into them with a little bit of practice. Lastly, there is one instance where the MotionPlus failed me, and that was in table tennis where I could not easily switch to a backhand. That’s my only real complaint regarding the peripheral.
As far as production values go, you can expect what you got out of the original Wii Sports. The graphics are passable and colorful and fun to look at, but they’re nothing special, though it is rather impressive checking out Wuhu Island in Island Flyover. The music is equally passable; nothing stands out, but nothing offends the ears either, and everything generally suits whatever game you’re playing. Imagine playing WSR in the lobby of a luxury hotel, with whatever music they’ve got playing at the time.
The replay value of this game is going to vary from person to person. If you’re the kind of person who really enjoyed Wii Sports, you’ll play this game for even longer; if you’ve got friends of the same calibur, this is going to be a party staple for many moons to come. That aside, though, this game does bring several games that are engaging enough to keep you coming back many times. And I guarantee even the most stubborn of gamers will come back time and time again to fence against stronger and stronger opponents.
In conclusion, I got out of Wii Sports Resort just about what I expected from it; it was an entertaining, if not deep, collection of mini-games that showed off what proper use of the MotionPlus was supposed to be like. With twelve sports to choose from, and further subdivision below that, there’s going to be at least one thing here that everyone will enjoy, and most likely more than that. A free MotionPlus, normally $25 at retail, should help sweeten the deal for those skeptical about the $50 price tag. I give this game a Yay! and encourage everyone to give it a try if they’re intrigued by the possibilities of MotionPlus gaming. This should make a few optimists out of nonbelievers.
