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lowens's Wii Sports (Wii)
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| [February 22, 2008 09:59:28 AM]
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Gameplay 2:
For the next round of Wii sports, two people left, leaving the match up at one versus one. Therefore, my friend and I decided to play baseball, boxing, and tennis. Not having to field in the Wii baseball was a nice change from most baseball games out there. Instead, my friend and I could just enjoy having a home run derby in his dorm room using the Wii remote. Eventually, however, we discovered that it was possible to pitch balls, although Wii baseball is so simple it doesn’t have a penalty for balls and treats them as if they were hittable, thus unfairly penalizing the batter.
I found boxing to be very strenuous compared to the other Wii sports. Instead of actually fighting each other, my friend and I traded off on a practice event for boxing with a bag to see who could get the higher score. The boxing was very exhilarating, as sometimes we could find a sweet spot on the bag where swinging the Wii remote and nunchuck at just the right angle and speed would allow us to land powerful blow after powerful blow in quick succession. However, sometimes the motion sensor wouldn’t pick up a swing quite correctly, and it wouldn’t be registered in the game, causing us to have to swing again, or even use a completely different swing.
Finally, we tried out Wii tennis, and I found it to be a great medium for the Wii remote’s capabilities. First off, I enjoyed that Nintendo didn’t force a player to have to somehow move around their side of the net quickly to reach the tennis ball in one versus one, by instead just having two versions of a single avatar spread out on one side being controlled and synchronized up to just one Wii remote. I also enjoyed having the potential for my back Mii to still have a swing on the tennis ball if I missed with my front Mii. Ultimately, I found Wii tennis to be my favorite of all of the Wii Sports. Wii tennis seems to have a nice balance between laid-back play, rewarding timing over power, while still keeping the player constantly in action.
Design:
Overall, I thought that Wii Sports incorporated the Wii’s innovative feature of a controller with motion sensor capabilities in a private recreational console into five everyday sports, while still keeping them enjoyable and interesting to play. Wii Sports was a lot of fun for me because it allowed me to enjoy activities I enjoy in a new, more easy-going, video game party environment. Also, compared to most sports games, where you press a button and an avatar reacts with a single action, or reacts using a table of actions, in Wii Sports the motion is much less restricted. Being more connected to my avatar than most games, both visually and when our motions were synchronized, was pleasing, especially because the avatar was a caricature of myself.
Next, I am not sure if I have played a game that is more suited towards a party scene, and that is as appealing to a wider player base. For example, two of the people I played Wii Sports with during my first game session do not play any other video games regularly, but were just as involved as I was in Wii Sports. Therefore, Wii Sports brought people together to play that wouldn’t normally play video games together, creating a strong social activity.
However, I wasn’t completely satisfied with Wii Sports. I found motion sensor problems in all of the sports with my Wii remote. The motion sensor technology wasn’t always dependable, but I found tennis and boxing be the more frustrating in this sense. It was never fun for me to swing at the right time in tennis, and only to have the ball pass by my Mii untouched. Given enough time though, I believe a player could adapt to most sensor issues, and just learn its limits. However, if I would have Nintendo improve upon one part of Wii Sports, it would be to make the motion sensor more dependable.
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| [February 22, 2008 09:57:54 AM]
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Summary:
Nintendo’s Wii Sports allows for one to four players to participate in simulated sports, using the Wii remote’s motion sensor to control an avatar’s motion in the game. Wii Sports is geared towards multiplayer use, allowing a group of people to compete in simplified, cartoonish versions of tennis, baseball, bowling, boxing and golfing. Also as part of Wii Sports, there is the option to play variations of each sport in practice modes, such as hit the target in Tennis. Furthermore, Wii Sports lets a single player participate in a test of fitness involving several of the sports, allowing the player to assess their competence at the games with a Wii fitness age. Being released at launch with the Nintendo Wii, Wii Sports is a fun way for new users of the Wii to get adjusted to the Wii remote while playing social and enjoyable games.
Gameplay 1:
For my first session of playing Wii Sports, I got three other friends to play golf and bowling with me. However, before playing we all took the time to create avatars of ourselves in the Wii’s Mii channel, so we could have characters portraying us in Wii Sports. I found the avatar creation to be flexible enough for both creating hilarious, absurd looking characters, as well as avatars that are easily identifiable as the people they represent. I was pleased Nintendo implemented this feature because watching a friend act out the basic or similar motions to the real world sport being played in Wii sports while watching their avatar react with the game world was enjoyable.
Although Wii golf was enjoyable, I found its controls to be a little frustrating. It was very easy for me to over-swing, and difficult for me not swing in a straight enough line for all my swings to have the ball avoid going askew of where I was aiming. Also, I found tapping the ball a small distance to sink it in the hole to be annoying. The difference between a light tap, and a swing that will put the ball further from the hole than where it began was very minor feeling.
I found Wii bowling to be more enjoyable, and more exciting than golf. There was a lot of flexibility concerning the adjustments for where the ball would roll, and spin could be incorporated. I found bowling to be well portrayed in Wii Sports, and the motion of releasing the ball felt natural. The bowling was more involving and rewarding, and thus got everyone I was playing with more interesting in playing with and against each other, creating a very fun social event. I found that knocking down the pins was easy enough to keep me wanting to play, but difficult enough for me to work on mastering my Wii bowling.
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lowens's Wii Sports (Wii)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
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