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CelestialWing's Wii Sports (Wii)
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| [February 21, 2008 06:49:31 PM]
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GAMEPLAY (2)
Being the type of game it is, my opinion of Wii Sports did not change much upon a few more sessions with it. Once again, playing for a short while with others was fun, but not exactly memorable. As a single player experience, it certainly did not hold my attention for long. However, a more recent experience with it made me give it some more value.
This happened to be the first time I was in the position of the introducer (for this game). The roles of the first time I played Wii Sports were reversed, only this time the other person was my oldest sister - who primarily only plays games in the vein of Tetris and Spider Solitaire. She was quite reluctant to try out Wii Sports; after all, the time when I convinced her to play Myst, a game I thought she might like, did not turn out exactly well...though it was quite interesting and amusing, but that's another story for another time.
So after much convincing that it would be fun and easy to get into, we decided to try, of course, Wii-tennis - since it was, again, the easiest to get into. Although my crazy situation was much less likely to happen with my oldest sister, I promptly informed her about the almighty importance of timing, and timing only in the game as soon as I noticed her having difficulties. I'm still not sure if she assumed some of the same stuff as me or if she was just getting used to the timing, but informing her about it quickly certainly helped. Also, the replays were surprisingly useful in telling her stuff like "You swung too soon there, see?" or "Swing just a little bit before that." etc. She soon got the hang of it.
Interestingly, the only part of the Wii-tennis that had come to me naturally the first time I played, the serving, gave my oldest sister more trouble since it was more complex. I was so used to this part of the game, and it had come to me so much easier since it was the only part that felt more like actual tennis to me, that it was a change of perspective to see my sister having the opposite reaction to it. Granted, that was because she thought underhanded serves could be done, and while explaining and watching her, I had the strange experience of consciously realizing that any two consecutive swings (properly timed of course) of the Wii-mote would work as a serve; I say "consciously" because unconsciously I already knew this must be the case, since the Wii-tennis game did not take into account swing direction in any other case. I had always used the actual overhand swing motion (up-down, much like the one done by the player's Mii) since it was natural to me; it was only now I realized the first swing sent up the ball, and the second swing, well, swung. It was funky watching my sister successfully serving with a left-right motion or, even weirder, a down-up motion.
In the end, it was fun and great to be having a close Wii-tennis match with my oldest sister after she quickly learned how to play the game. Also, she found the cartoony graphics and replays of screw-ups hilarious, and it rubbed off on me since I had always thought they were funny too. We had quite a few matches, full of cracking up at our Mii's crazy screwed-up dives and swings, as well as the always bouncing, cheering crowd which seemed happy regardless of if a ball had just hit them in the face. She was reluctant to try out another "sport" and we had limited time anyway, so we just continued playing and laughing through tennis matches...
DESIGN
As my experiences highlight, the core of Wii-Sports' design, as well as its main strength and weakness, is its accessibility and simplicity. It easy to get anyone into the games, especially the simpler ones, and have a good time. On the other hand, the lack of depth does not make it good for extended play. In other words it has a lot of the first seduction (especially because of it being packaged with the Wii, it is automatically gotten and almost "bypasses", in a loophole fashion, having to get the player to have enough interest in the game to buy it.), but not enough of the second seduction.
This is also because the single player options are meager even for a game made for multi-player (such as fighting games, racers, or party games). Game genres like these are simply better suited for multi-player, but often can cover there bases pretty well with good single player modes or options. Some games even have such-well designed single player modes that the single-player experience can arguably exceed the multi-player experience (I'm told Soul Caliber III does just that). This game only attempts that with (at least I'm told) an increasing AI difficulty to match your Mii's "skill" level.
Also, another part of some multi-player games is the semi-concealed depth some of them offer, a sort of emergent complexity that comes from becoming more experienced with the game. This is present in many fighters of course, including the Super Smash Brothers series of fighter/party game hybrids, and some racers as well, Mario Kart series included. Nintendo has proven it can do this with those two series, but perhaps it was more difficult to get that into this sort of game, because it seems to be lacking that depth as far as I can tell.
To end this not sounding like I hate the game, I'll just say again that the game is great to get into and get others into for a short, fun romp. The graphics may not be great, but at least they're cartoony and funny. Also, the Wii-mote is certainly great to play with; although other Wii-games may do it just as well (or possibly better), this is as good a game as any to introduce someone to the Wii "experience". Although some of the games (*cough*...tennis...*cough*) may not simulate the actual sport very well, they are still fun to play with the Wii-mote, while others actually sort-of feel like the real activity (like bowling). Anyways, I don't want the line to blur too much between the Wii console's strengths and this game's actual strengths. In summary, play this in short bursts with friends or newcomers to games/the Wii/whatever.
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| [February 21, 2008 04:48:44 PM]
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NOTE
I first experienced this game a while ago, around the indicated start time. I have only played it occasionally in various situations since then. I will document my two most important sessions with the game in terms of how they affected my opinion of the game.
SUMMARY
Wii Sports is the game that originally came packaged with new Wii consoles (actually I have no idea if this is still the case - it may very well be), and thus is likely the most widespread Wii game out there. The game allows multiple players to play video-game versions of tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing using the spiffy motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii-mote. This game might as well be a tech-demo for the Wii-mote, but at least it's a fun, cartoony, and user-friendly way to learn about the Wii's motion-sensing gameplay, which separates it from the other next-gen (really by now they're current-gen) consoles out there.
GAMEPLAY
Luckily, the first time I played Wii Sports was with my middle sister; I say this because I personally think this game is only truly fun with others. She had also played it before, and thus could guide me into it...At least that's what I would say for most games (I guide her into RPGs sometimes), but Wii Sports hardly needs an introduction, its beauty is in its pick-up-and-play accessibility; however, my sister certainly helped in correcting some false assumptions I had at first...
She suggested we try tennis first since it was easy to get into and fun. Ironically (and hilariously), I was initially confused as I tried to figure out the "intricacies" of the gameplay, as was habit from playing games like RPGs all the time. I grew baffled and frustrated as I did horribly in the game: Wait, so I can't move from left to right? How do you control both team members? Why does the guy in front dive for it stupidly when I want the guy in the back to go up and make a nice, easy swing? How come when I swing faster and harder the ball doesn't travel faster? Wait, I'm doing a backhand swing - shouldn't that make it go right - and not left to out of bounds? Okay, the ball is right above me, I should slam it down towards the other side - no, don't hit it to the right, where the out of bounds line is two feet away! Man, do I suck at this game or what? My sister, noticing my troubled look and poor performance, questioned me; I of course answered with a few of the thoughts going through my head... She gave me a wonderfully funny look, laughed a little, and informed me that the only thing that mattered was the timing of the swing. *Insert awkward enlightened silence* "Oh...", I said as I laughed at myself a little. After a few explanations on how timing affected everything, I got into the "groove" of the game and it was fun having a heated "match" with my sister.
Perhaps worried after the previous escapade that the simplicity of Wii-tennis would get to me, my sister soon suggested we move to bowling, which was a little more complex. Overall, I felt it simulated bowling itself better - taking in right or left standing position, ball release time, and throw direction to the right or left. Although it was less fast paced than tennis, getting a strike felt far more rewarding than say, getting the almost-random steaming fast ball effect in tennis, because it felt like it one had better control over it. In the end, it was not as fast and funny as tennis, but was closer to the actual, relaxed feeling of bowling...which was nice.
Lastly, my first play of Wii Sports ended with boxing, which my sister said I should play against the AI since it was more fun (since it was less likely to take forever). It had a few complex controls that were not entirely as intuitive as the bowling. In the end, I found my sister's suggestion of being ultra-aggressive to be the most effective. Swinging in different ways and patterns of hooks, uppercuts, etc. seemed to be more effective; but although it was nice the game seemed to detect these differences, it also seemed a little random. It was certainly the most tiring of the three I tried that day, and left me with a strange mixed feeling of fun, yet doubt of what was really going on in the game. Overall, my first session of Wii Sports was fun, but completely forgettable as well, if it weren't for the funny misconceptions I had about Wii-tennis.
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CelestialWing's Wii Sports (Wii)
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Current Status: Played occasionally
GameLog started on: Sunday 15 July, 2007
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