Setzer's Wii Sports Review

[Setzertrancer]

I just got my Wii today so I thought I might as well write a review about the game that comes with the console. Which by the way is great and get an overall score of 8.5/10. I will write this review by writing a mini review about each of the 5 minigames. All of the games only use the Wiimote except for boxing which uses the Nunchuku as well.

Tennis
This game is probably going to be the most popular, it is fun and the wiimote works like a dream. The greatest thing is how realisticly the Wiimote works. Although no matter how you swing you'll still hit the ball, the way you swing accurately makes the ball go in any number of directions. You can try and hit slammers or you can hit the ball up to make spinners. In fact most of the ways you can hit the ball in real life are very realisticly converted to the game. This game is probably the 2nd most physically exhausting.
The only thing you control is your rachet and your character moves on his own towards where ever the ball is, this works well to and you never really need to worry about him not being in the best position. You are able to play one on one or two on two. You can even play 3 players be having one player control both people on a 2 on 2 game.
8/10

Golf
Again this game feels so natural when you line up to take the hit. There are a couple of bugs that appear if you don't hold the Wiimote exactly right but once you get the hang of it, it won't be long before you start scoring birdies. In fact that is the only issue I have with this game, it is way easier then in real life, much easier. It is also a lot easier then other console golf games I've played too. Unfortinately the game itself is really short and only consists of about 5 courses. But because of how much this game impressed me I really want an exclusive golf game to be released because it would be almost enough to replace going out and playing golf for real.
8/10

Bowling
This really is better then going to play bowling at your local ally. No entrance fee, you can play as many games as you like, You don't have to put on the shoes, you can bring your own food and drinks and the physics of the game are nearly indistinguisable from real life play. In fact when me and 2 mates played our scores were eeriely close to the scores we got last time we went to the bowling ally. With me getting splits nearly every round and coming last because it realistically emulated how much I really suck at bowling. I will never go to the bowling alley again unless someone pays me in for free, it's really that good. The Wiimote is most difficult to get the hang of in this game however. With it you pretty much make the exact actions you would in real life. You start off holding it at your face and then you swing back and forward and then you release the ball by letting go of the B button.
8.5/10

Baseball
Very disapointing compared to the other games. Mainly because the way you move the wiimote has no effect whatsoever on how you bat or how you bowl. Bowling just consists of 3 different bowling manuvers which are selected by pressing A, B or both at once and no matter what you do with the Wiimote it dosn't effect your throw at all. In Batting the only thing the wiimote does it makes the bat swing, but you can't aim down or up you can only swing straight and the only thing that effects where the ball goes is your timing and which type of bowl the bowler did. So compared to the other games it has very little diversity and it will be the quickest one that you get bored of.
5.5/10

Boxing
This one is incredible, in my opinion the best game on wii sports. This is because you use the Nunchuku as well as the Wiimote and you use the both of them to punch with either arm, and the punch depends a lot of how you jab with the wiimote, for example what I've found so far is you can do an uppercut motion to punch low, jap to punch staight and you can attempt and overhead hook. In addition you hold both of the controllers near your head to guard yourself from being hit and you can tilt the controller to make your boxer lean to the left or right, doding their punches and you can then make punches in those positions. Because of this you can emulate real boxing by leaning your own body to the left and right and the boxer pretty much mimics you exactly. The only problem is that it's quite hard to see what is going on in the 3rd person view. Even though your boxer is transperant it's hard to see your opponent to react to his attacks. They could have fixed this problem simply by having it in first person perspective. This is also the most exhausing to play, because of the amount of physical movement involved.
9/10

There are also a couple of other features on the game that I haven't tried out yet for single player play. This game emulates these sports so well that many of them are as exhausting to play, so couch potatos probably won't like this game, but then again maybe this game provides a fun way for them to finally get some exercise.

Unfortinately the overall size of the game is quite small, as in if you compare this to games bought separately from the console it's like a demo in size. Hopefully there will be a commercially released version that will expand on all the games already offered, like 18 hole courses of golf, better Wiimote control in baseball and additional options and features in the other games. It gets a good rating from me despite it's small size.

8.5/10 overall

If you want to ask any specific question about the game, post them and I'll answer as best I can.

[Setzertrancer]

Wow Geo, you've already sold it to me and I added your point about not having to put on the shoes. Read it again it's updated massively since you read it.

The way you described the shot working on SSG, sounds pretty similar to Wii Sports golf. What you do if you make a bunch of practice shots and there are several bars you can aim for in the power meter, determined by how hard you hit. Sometimes especially when putting you'll want to aim as low on this bar as posible, but when driving there is a max to the bar and if you go over this you stuff up and your ball get hit hard in a random direction, often causing it to go in the rough. But if you aim as high on the bar as posible without going over it, you hit the ball at maximum range and nice and straight. There are also wind factors to take into account often, so sometimes you'll want to aim a little to the left or right of where you want the ball to land.

[OnOneRyder]

How does the Wii stand up against the ps3 and 360 visually? Are the graphics on par? I can't find anywhere to try out a Wii and ps3 yet so the only comparison I'd have is the 360.

[Hikari]

You forgot to mention a few things about the baseball. How maby one out of five hits is fair. It's so annoying how almost every hit is fowl. Plus the fact the number of bases you run is based on how far and where you hit the ball and your outfielders couldn't catch a ball{or run to one} if their lives depended on it.

One thing about golf, the power meter is very sensitive. Putting is so hard cause you can't hit softly unless your pefectly focused on the game. And it hooks or slices if you hit too hard, which is very easy to do.

Besides that this game is amazing. Most people, myself included, would have never bought this game since it's so small and doesn't look impressive. After playing it, I now think otherwise. I'm so getting Wii Play one of these days.

[Hikari]

Yes, each Mii you have can be used to play Wii Sports. Whenever you finish a game, you earn skill points depending on your performance. They decide on your opponents. The more points the harder the opponent.

Also, once you reach 1000 skill points it conciders you Pro. Some of the games have very minor rewards for this. In bowling it's a special ball. In boxing it's a full crowd with all the Miis you've made. Subtle things that don't matter to much.

[Setzertrancer]

I just thought I'd extend on the review by telling you all about the 2 game options I hadn't tried out till recently. These are the Wii Sport Training and Fitness options.

Training
Training is really fun and can be played with up to 4 players. A menu come up showing icons of each of the 5 sports and 2 more icons under each one. Each of these icons allows you to play a version of that game that is a little different and has you trying to earn enough points to earn bronze, silver and gold medals. The Tennis game for example is where someone is hitting ball towards you continuously and you have to hit them back without going over the usual point loss lines. In this you lose as soon as you miss or badly hit a single ball, so you have to last as long as posible. After getting only a small amount of points on each of these games the next icon below it opens up giving you another variant of tennis or whatever else you were playing. So overall there are 15 of these game and all of them are good fun in my opinion.
9/10

Fitness
This claims to be able to calculate your fitness age, which is a bit rediculous because it just gets you to play 3 games that assess your skills at using the Wiimote, not you physical fitness, because the games arn't all that physical at all, especially with one being a bowling variant. Anyway it's an okay addition to the game, but is definatlely far from what makes it, Training is where they did well.
4/10

@Geomancer, I made a Mii of my own and used it in the Training option, so yes and it's a pretty cool option. Hikari probably answered your 2nd question better then I could.

@OnOneRyder, In Wii sports anyway the graphics arn't that great at all, I've also played Zelda: Twilight Princess and unfortinatly it's graphics are only a little better then PS2. But I'm not sure if that does it justice because Zelda for Wii is actually just a clone of the one coming out on Gamecube too. So from what I've seen so far I don't know how good the graphics can be on the Wii.

[Sir Kenneth]

I just received 5 Nintendo Wiis at the store I work in yesterday (release date is today here in Denmark) and the electronics department guys kidnapped one for testing/display. I got to play golf on it. Seemed like fun.

[lazyboy708]

Well if you haven't seen what these retards have been doing with the Nintendo Wii you'll probably think twice about what they say on TV. I've seen some people put their hand through a window playing boxing and some samauri game. My friend just about lost his hand playing some extreme fighting in a ceiling fan. Even though I think the Wii is cool and its graphics are nice I still think that it can be a dangerous game system.

[Setzertrancer]

Well if you haven't seen what these retards have been doing with the Nintendo Wii you'll probably think twice about what they say on TV. I've seen some people put their hand through a window playing boxing and some samauri game. My friend just about lost his hand playing some extreme fighting in a ceiling fan. Even though I think the Wii is cool and its graphics are nice I still think that it can be a dangerous game system.

You do have a point Lazyboy. I nearly got clobbered in the head by my mates Wiimote when we were plaing tennis. However I don't beleive the console can be put to blame, because quite annoyingly, but probably a good thing. They have a warning screen that tells you to ensure there are no impeding objects or people around you, before each game you go into. It's the responsibility of the person playing to ensure that they can reach in every direction without coming into contact with anything.

Lol, unfortinately the roof of the caravan I live in isn't high enough.

[Hikari]

I've looked at the gamefaq message boards and you wouldn't believe many threads about that I saw. Usually the same resonse is given.

It is the responsibility of the player to check his surrounding for anything potentially dangerous during gameplay.
Do not let go of the controller while playing. The wrist strap isn't invinsible. It will break if you aren't careful, so don't trust it and just start flinging the controler around.
If your hands are sweaty, dry them so the controller won't slip from your hands while playing.
Stop occationally and check surroundings again. If you get in the game to much you might suddenly realize you moved closer to the tv. If you don't pay attention, you'll end up to close and hit it.

I actually got an e-mail from nintendo(I signed up for newsletters) telling me a few of these. Mainly the wrist strap isn't invinsible and to keep your hands dry.