Why go to Hawaii when you can play at home?
The Original Wii Sports was a glorified tech demo that was pre packaged with the Nintendo Wii console at launch, which helped to sell MILLIONS of Wii’s. Disappointed children and Teenagers wanting a console able to play good games were sadly disappointed as the Wii Sports franchise spawned a media propaganda campaign toward the soccer moms of the world, many finding the gimmick machine instead of a Playstation 3 under the tree During Christmas. Nearly three years later, a new Tech Demo has been released as Wii Sports Resort, testing the Wii’s new Wii Motion Plus that helps emulate 1 to 1 control. Is this new glorified Tech Demo worth the price of admission?
Story: Your a Corporation with a Cash Cow, that has completely alienated its original Core user base that kept the company afloat during a plethora of years and bad business decisions, now controlling the highest selling console in videogame history, with nearly no real game support, leading to a influx of 10 dollar party games, promoting fitness oriented products which hipsters and pop culture/news feed of off spreading the cancer of can be described as the anti-videogame, disguised as videogames, fooling the uneducated soccer-moms and dads of the world to purchase these abominations of the industry, to only release one title a year worth giving a damn about……..er……I mean your a happy Mii person, having Happy fun on a Happy Island. You are also most likely white and rich, within the game.
Presentation: Wii Sports Resort has a very clean cartoony look to it. Your Mii avatars are just a couple of simple shapes, like a block structure pieced together with almost no detail other than your default facial expression configured in the Mii setup within the Wii’s Channel Desktop thing. Even though Mii’s are not detailed avatars of your virtual self, they are still cute in their own way, which makes me wish the Fencing Sword was not a blunt wooden stick, but a rapier. Mii’s annimate awkwardly most of the time, with their odd little virual ball(hands) moving in similar fashion to your own movements, but it can look even more unnatural than the Mii’s already do. I will admitt I do like that the avatar that is based in the system memory is ported to some games as an available character which usually is seamless, something neither of the other next gen consoles have implements (Something Microsoft has failed at specifically thus far).
If only the parachute would not open.....
Comparing the environments and lighting compared to the Original Wii Sports, and even the red headed stepchild, WiiPlay, there is a considerable amount of additional detail. Everything is still slightly blurry considering the Wii does not scale past 480p, but it should be noted it overall is a better looking package. In my own way, I would relate its look and style to a high rez Pilotwings 64 aesthetic, which many of you have no damn idea what game im talking about. In fact if this was a Pilotwings remake, I might have taken to it better, id love to shoot Mario’s face again on Mount Rushmore. The framerate is solid, load times are minimal, and the screens are well executed considering its a collection of minigames.
Gameplay: So the biggest attraction is the Wii Motion Plus, which adds nearly 1 to 1 control, something the Wii was toted to have the ability to do in the first place. There are only two minigames really worth your time in my opinion as well, Swordplay and Archery. Each is tuned to use your own body motion, but restricts extra moment, which does not make your 1 to 1 motion true. I couldn’t pick up my bow and turn it against other Mii’s for example. The Swordplay is all done on a walk on rails perspective, as the Mii’s walk for you, you just attempt to block and attack. There are a good amount of other Mini games, biking, wake boarding, etc, many of them just novel to try at best. Bowing and Golf return with the new control scheme, and are more difficult versions due to the additional sensitivity of the wiimote, or in otherwords a greater chance of fucking up a shot. Most of the controls work well enough for the minigames, if some just straight out don’t make sense (Bicycling).
If only they were sharp...
Special: It should be noted that Wii Sports Resort only comes with ONE Wii Motion Plus addon. An additional Wii Motion Plus dongle attachment will run you about 20 bucks separately per Wiimote. Considering some games are up to 4 players, some requiring specifically that 4 wiimotes be present, that’s alot of money in dongles, whereas the original Wii Sports allowed alot of sharing of the same remote for the mini games.
Conclusion: Even for a glorified tech demo, it is still a solid set of minigames that for fans of the original Wii Sports will welcome openly. It definitely can be a good party game, specifically when alchohol is involved. Dont purchase this if your looking for any sort of depth, or extreme re-playability, as the none of the mini games will hold your attention for more than an hour at most. If your looking to get the Wii Motion Plus hoping it will improve on the current library of Wii titles, this is a pipedream, as games will need to support the new dongle specifically, no update will add any further functionality. Fifty bucks is a bit steep for a minigame collection with improved controls, even if the Wii Motion Plus is bundled with it. This should be a buy for couples and or party oriented persons.
Wii Sports Resort is a *** out of 5
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