While on my honeymoon, I stumbled across a $50 Best Buy gift card in my wallet, and was itching to head to the mall and buy something neat. In the end, I decided to finally pick up the Wii Motion Plus, which came packaged with Wii Sports Resort. I enjoyed the casual games of Wii Sports, so I figured I would equally enjoy Wii Sports Resort.
Wii Sports Resort is kind of a mixed bag, with some great games, as well as some lame ones. There are twelve total, though two (golf and bowling) are basically clones from Wii Sports, but with the Motion Plus controls. Before I get into the game, let me talk about Wii Motion Plus. It’s a small device that attaches to the bottom of the Wii Remote, but the problem is that the Motion Plus is encased in a silicon sleeve, so you have to go through some effort to attach it each time. The Nunchuck then connects to the bottom of the Motion Plus. This makes the controller bulky…what was initially a nice light controller in your hand is now getting weighed down with the Motion Plus and the casing. However, it’s only a minor annoyance, and if anything I hate it more for the effort to hook it up than the weight it adds (which is actually minor, but I just want to complain about it.)
As for the controls, I definitely see an increase in the motion detection. It really is spot on, and I could only imagine re-playing Twilight Princess or Force Unleashed with these controls. It really does perfectly mimic your motions on screen, and some of the games included in Wii Sports Resort really play well to these capabilities. I look forward to future games that will be able to really take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus.
Now on to Wii Sports Resort. Just like Wii Sports was intended to introduce people to the Wii’s capabilities, Wii Sports Resort does likewise in regards to the Motion Plus. As I already mentioned, Sports Resort comes packed with twelve games which utilize this new controller add-on. Some of the games are very fun, while others are annoying complex and difficult. One of my favorites right off the bat was Swordplay, which involves two players going at it with swords. It plays very similar to Wii Sports Boxing, except that your every slash (whether horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) or even stab is accurately replicated onscreen. The object of the game is to smack your opponent back enough to knock them off a platform and into the pool below. It kind of looks like something reminiscent of American Gladiators, and it is definitely my favorite game in the collection.
Some other notable games included Archery, Frisbee, Table Tennis, and Basketball. Archery was pretty cool, in which you really have to hold steady and focus in order to score points. In Frisbee, you throw your Frisbee at a target and hope your dog catches it. The closer he catches it to the target, the more points you gain. Table Tennis is kind of a revamped Wii Sports Tennis, except that it involves ping pong rules, and not tennis. Basketball is basically a game of 3-point free throws, where you compete to score as many baskets as you can in the allotted time. In all these games, the Motion Plus controls do come through and allow you to do things you couldn’t do with a regular Wii Remote.
Unfortunately, there are some flukes in the Sports Resort collection as well. Canoeing and Power Cruising both proved to be marred in controls that were too sensitive. It was difficult to get the character on screen to move in the direction you wanted, especially in Power Cruising. The cycling game was decent, but was pretty boring. If it wasn’t for the fact that Shell and I could play it by riding a double-seater bike, I would have not played through the entire race. The Bowling and Golf games are fun and all, but are simply re-hashings of the same games from Wii Sports, so it’s not exactly the most original ideas for games.
Overall, I was pleased with both Wii Sports Resort and Motion Plus. I really do enjoy playing the casual Wii games (especially since those are the games Shell will play), and Sports Resort is clearly a successful sequel to Wii Sports. While there are a few duds in the game, the majority of them are either great or decent, and worth the purchase. I would have liked to have seen more co-op game modes, as well as online play, to break up the monotony of the single player and vs modes. As for the Motion Plus, it is not given enough credit in Sports Resort, and it’s true abilities are not yet tapped. I believe that it will take a more “hardcore” game (not a simple casual game) to really unleash what the Motion Plus can do, and it will enable the Wii to keep up with Sony’s Move and Microsoft’s Kinect. Personally, I would love to have some kind of lightsaber Star Wars game, or a new Legend of Zelda…something with blades!
