People who buy new Wiis also quickly discover that they are getting the Wii Sports Disc. This bundle of five sports simulations is now being distributed even more than the Super Mario Bros. game franchise.
The Wii Sports interface comes to life when the player grabs the Wiimote and pantomimes swinging a golf club, throwing a punch, throwing a ball, swinging a tennis racket or swinging a bat. The console’s motion sensors detect the gesture and reproduce it in the game. All five activities are essentially stripped-down versions of the actual events and are significantly lacking in realistic strategy elements. Wii Sports demonstrates quite successfully the promise of Wii technology.
Overview of Wii sports games
Wii Sports Baseball may remind you of the annual summer All-Star Break home run contest. You hold the remote and swing it like you’re holding a real bat to hit. Spin power and time are your choice. The strike zone takes care of itself. To throw, you make a forward movement, above the head. Launch speed is determined by how quickly the Wii Remote makes the gesture. You, as the pitcher, also decide whether to throw a screwball, fastball, or switch by pressing the A or B button or both. Pad D controls the placement of your pitch. Three-inning games are more enjoyable with two players matching wits, but the game also does an adequate job of challenging one player.
Novice players will especially enjoy Wii Sports Bowling. Being incredibly realistic, the competition’s bowling simulations really don’t have room to improve on the Wii version. If you bowl in the real world, acquiring this virtual version is a piece of cake. Vary the angle at which you face the console and twist your wrist and arm to control the turn and direction. The crowd gets excited and screams when you knock down a strike or a spare. Hey, who wants to pay to wear stiff, narrow bowling shoes that will give you athlete’s foot in a heartbeat? It is not necessary in Wii Bowling.
Feel the sweat sliding down your forehead. Most gamers quickly discover that boxing is the most physically intense challenge in the Wii Sports suite. Your on-screen character is personalized with the Mii image you create using the Wii Online Channel. The nunchuk connects to the remote of this game and the pair of controllers send your movements to the console. You won’t feel the real impact of your connected jabs, so you’ll find the game more like hitting an imaginary person. But you can avoid the trip to the emergency room for a concussion.
Tennis is about form and timing. Flipping the remote up launches the ball into the sky as you serve. The direction of your serve or return depends entirely on the timing of your swing. You can hit forehand and backhand shots, and you can choose between lob or smash. He returns the ball with professional effect. The game automatically moves your character towards the ball. You will not have laser focused precision like in real life. Play singles or doubles. You can also play the system if you are alone.
Golf challenges players with holes that cover a variety of skill levels. You control the angle and power of your shot as you move the remote. Novices will find it quite difficult to master the necessary skills. It’s really not intuitive. You take turns with your golf buddies teeing off, hitting fairway shots and trying to sink putts. Water, wind and sand traps dot the course as obstacles. Die-hard players will eventually master the game with plenty of practice. Children may not have the patience to get to that point.
Wii sports training and fitness
Along with the standard game mode, the Wii Sports pack includes Training and Fitness modules. Training helps work on specific skills to use in the normal version of the games and gives veteran players some fun twists. Bowling includes an increasing number of bowling pins in different formations, as well as some creative lane barriers. You find yourself in a home run fight in baseball practice. You return serves during tennis training, trying to keep your streak going. Your golf training challenge is to get the ball back onto the green from deep in the rough, in the woods, or from other tricky spots. In boxing practice, you have to attack the punching bags until you blow them up and rip their mounts off. The system tests your fitness in Fitness mode with three random events and then tells you at what age level you perform.
to wrap
Wii Sports manages to demonstrate the potential of Wii to the masses. Its five entertaining games (tennis, boxing, baseball, golf, and bowling) top the list of most popular Wii games. Training and fitness modes offer fun variations on classic sports. While the graphics and strategy could be considered cheesy to varying degrees, more sophisticated game development for the best-selling game console is almost certain. Not too long ago, Pac Man and power pills were the state of the art. Electronic games have evolved by leaps and bounds since then. Wii Sports may be the ticket to a new era of interactive gaming.