Review: Wii Sports Resort

Is this the true Wii Sports 2 or just more mini-game madness?

Format: Wii Dev: Nintendo Pub: Nintendo Out: 24/07/09 Players: 1-4

OK, so when you invested in your Wii console, Wii Sports was like nothing you’d ever seen before. This is true, but one couldn’t help but feel as if Nintendo were possibly holding out on us. Limited sports and variety of games left the original Wii Sports lacking longevity. Cue Wii Sports Resort, the sequel that provides more sports, modes and a more sensitive control system, thanks to Wii Motion Plus.

Motion Plus is Nintendo’s new attachment for the Wii Remote that provides the controller with extra sensitivity when reading the players movements. Something that obviously comes in handy with Wii games such as this.

Baseball and boxing have been given their marching orders here, while tennis, bowling and golf remain. New to the party are wakeboarding, sword fighting, Frisbee, archery, basketball, table tennis, cycling, air sports, jet skiing and canoeing. Sounds like a tiring activity weekend, right? Luckily you do not have to leave the comfort of your own home to enjoy all of these activities with Wii Sports Resort. The game is set on Wuhu Island, with the various sports taking place at different locations. You can actually traverse the entire island by cycling if you so choose.

Here’s a rundown of the different sports on offer in Wii Sports Resort:

Swordplay: Who doesn’t like battering the heck out of people with a sword?

Disappointedly, it’s made from wood, but, hey, it’s a family game. You can take on waves of enemies or duel against a single enemy on a platform above water with a view to knocking them off and avoid being knocked off yourself.

Wakeboarding: What you’d expect really. Flying around on a board while clinging on to a rope. Excellent. A timer counts down while you score extra points by performing well timed stunts when launched into the air by waves.

Frisbee: This is one of the favourites. You throw a Frisbee to a cute little dog. There is an objective though, to have Toto, Lassie, Snoopy, whatever, catch the disc within parameters of a target or angle the throw so that, during its flight, it pops as many balloons as possible.

Archery: I enjoyed this one too. There’s innovative use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck here whilst firing arrows at targets. It gets increasingly difficult as you go on, with the targets becoming further away and eventually being behind wooden obstacles, some that move from left to right to make it more challenging.

Basketball: Excellent fun, although obviously not as free as your conventional basketball game. You can either participate in a three point shootout or three on three. I prefer three on three as you can dummy the defenders and perform slam dunks, good times.

Table Tennis: Not worlds apart from standard tennis to be fair, only difference is that it’s played on a table.

Golf/Bowling/Tennis: Practically the same as the ones on Wii Sports, just with the added accuracy of Motion Plus.

Jet Skiing: The player must go through horseshoe shaped checkpoints that come up out of the water. This can be tricky as the jet ski is not ever so easy to keep straight, not to mention your timed.

Canoeing: Definitely the endurance game of the bunch. The objective is to row a certain distance as quickly as possible. Hurts your arms.

Cycling: Good fun, pedalling via piston style motions with your arms. You have to pace yourself though or you’ll run out of breath and be overtaken by everyone. Save your energy for the final sprint.

Air Sports: While skydiving is good fun, it’s a mere novelty compared to Island Flyover. This mode puts you in control of a little by plane and lets you fly around Wuhu Island. There a lots of location markers to be collected on Island Flyover and it can prove to be very addictive, not to mention frustrating.

So there you have it. There is a lot of good fun to be had playing Wii Sports Resort, whether it be with your mates or your family. It can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone – a sound follow up to Nintendo’s breakthrough pack in.

Andy King

Tags: casual, nintendo, Sports, wii motion plus, wii sports