If you own a Wii, chances are you have a little disc lying around the house titled Wii Sports. For some of you players out there, that might be the only game you have around the house for the Wii, I certainly know of a few family members where this is the case. As far as pack-in games go, and keep in mind that's a tradition that's pretty much long gone for launch consoles, it was a different attempt at showing off what the hardware could do, and you could probably argue it was little more than a tech demo.
Still, it was a pretty damn fun tech demo to have.
Personally I spent a fair amount of time with bowling, but I definitely dabbled in a few of the other sports offered on the original disc. With this new title in what I'm sure will be a franchise for Nintendo, Wii Sports Resort, we're given a far more robust package of mini-games than before, and for the most part, they're just as fun to play as the original five offerings.
I can't talk about Wii Sports Resort without at least mentioning the Wii peripheral that's packed in with it, and while Motion Plus has already hit the market with a few other titles, notably Tiger Woods 2010 and Grand Slam Tennis, this is the first game from Nintendo that supports the accessory, and Resort does a pretty good job of showing off what the little attachment to your Wii remote can do. The idea is that this unit brings a true 1:1 experience to the Wii, something that people have been wanting from the console since it's release. It's really evident in certain games on Resort, things like Table Tennis, Golf, Frisbee, and the Sword-fighting games. Motion Plus works without a hitch, it had no trouble picking up on my movements and mimicking them on screen, with the only real problem being that you need to calibrate it for every play session. It's a minor annoyance that only takes a few seconds of time, but I suppose it's a necessary one too. It never lost calibration for me while playing, but if it does you can easily recalibrate it by sitting it down on a flat surface for a few seconds. It's also very easy to set-up, you simply plug it into the bottom slot on the remote and it's pretty much ready to go, so for those of you that aren't particularly tech savvy, it's very easy to use.
As far as the game goes, there's a much larger library of events and games to check out, along with a few old favorites returning. For the newer games, I really enjoyed Table Tennis, Air Sports, Sword-fighting, Wakeboarding, and the newer version of Bowling included. There are a few duds, like Cycling, but outside of about three games I enjoyed just about everything I played. Certain events really stand out, and you can see them easily being used in other titles down the line, like the outstanding Archery events. Most of the games you play will have unlockable modes that differ the gameplay slightly, like the 100 man battle you can partake in with Sword-fighting, of Frisbee golf from the Frisbee portion. The unlocks are pretty easy to get, most will appear after you've played through the original game once, so you won't need to waste much time getting everything the game has to offer, which is nice considering that this is a game that's best played with a group of people, and nothing bogs down that experience more than having to tediously play through things you don't enjoy to get to things you will.
Visually, the game is pretty much on par with the style of Wii sports, and the Miis in general, but you can tell that Resort has a much heavier emphasis on color and outdoor events, so it's certainly more vibrant than the original. Certain events look downright great for the Wii, like the water events, and while it won't set graphic aficionados on fire, it was certainly better looking than I expected.
All games support 2-4 players, and like I mentioned earlier, it's certainly a title that you'll want to play with a group of friends. You can opt to play through all games as a single player experience, but there's not a lot of fun in competing against yourself, and since most of the games are score driven, you'll simply be posting up your own high scores.
All together, it's well worth picking up for Wii owners, and a great follow-up to the original. I do hope that we'll see certain events make their way into real games, I can definitely see a new Pilotwings or Waverace stemming from some of the events here, so hopefully Nintendo and other developers will pick up with these ideas and run with them. While not every event in the game is going to please you, I'm sure you'll find plenty of things to like, especially with a group of friends.
