Review: Wii Play (Wii)

Graphics- 6.5/10
Sound- 6/10
Gameplay- 6/10
Replay Value- 7/10
Overall- 6/10

This game should have been included with the console at launch, not Wii Sports. The game is training with the Wiimote and a little more. The additional Wiimote is a great reason to buy this game. Like Wii Sports it's a great multiplayer.

Many people will buy this game for the extra Wiimote and that is a great reason to buy this game because dropping fifty dollars for this is not worth it. The Wiimote addition makes each of the nine games cost about $1.11 (a Wiimote costs forty.) The multiplayer in this game is much better than the single player, much like Wii Sports. Again like Wii Sports the single player isn't bad, there is once again a system in place that will keep you coming back again and again. All of the nine games you can get Medals for, ranging from bronze to platinum and with every medal you receive a note on your message board that gives you a tip about that particular game (some of which are actually useful.) I would strongly recommend you buy this because of the Wiimote, but not necessarily alone.

Table Tennis - This game is good, not great. The main problem with this game is that it's way too forgiving. In other words, there are times in this game where you obviously miss the ball but it still counts as a hit. However a positive is the game is easy for all, you just have to move the paddle, this can make putting spin on the ball difficult though. You are not required to swing it like in Wii Tennis, it is all done automatically for you provided that you move to the paddle to the ball in time... or don't. One noticeable thing about this game is the Mii's, in both negative and positive ways. The positive is that the Miis that you make will watch you and more will come as you hit the ball more. The negative is the lack of Miis actually playing the game. Instead of your Mii moving and hitting the ball, it's just your hand. Multiplayer is pretty fun and can provide decent entertainment. Single player is fine but gold medals are way to hard to get.

Laser Hockey - Another example of an ok game, it presents nothing special. This game could be much more fun if it wasn't so annoying. The main reason it annoys me is my arm ends up getting sore because the only position that allows this game to work causes the soreness (you do get used to it.) The only other reason that game annoys me is in game stupidity, weather it's me or the computer. You see, when the game starts there is a certain angle, that if you hit the puck at, is a guaranteed point because the computer can not catch you to it. As for my stupidity, I have encountered many times where I scored a goal on myself , and if I just let it go I would have been fine. This game can be pretty fun if you play it against one of your friend, provided they aren't sore losers because once you get good at the game it will take your friends awhile to catch up to you. The other cool aspect of this game is the neon effect, it does make it "Laser" hockey and it just looks cool.

Fishing - Terrible graphics. That is what I first noticed. It appears to be drawn with crayons... no seriously. Otherwise the game is actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it because that may take awhile. I felt thrown into the game and I had no idea how to work anything at first, but I got used to it and know I like to play the game. One major positive of this game is the way points are distributed. It's no a certain number of points for any given fish. Each fish has a certain number of points attached to it and they can vary depending on size and weather or not it's the bonus fish (x2 points). Whatever you do though do not catch the "Small Fry," it's -50 points and takes away time. On the negative side this game isn't as fun on multiplayer like a majority of the other games, it's just fun to call your friend an idiot for catching a Small Fry when you know very well that you used to do it yourself all the time.

Find Mii - Find Mii can be really fun or terrible, it all depends on weather or not you are good. In this game you are given the simple task of finding a specified Mii. This task however can evolve into many different searching contest all ranging in style and difficulty. In the first contest you have to find to Mii's out of four that look alike. Simple enough right? It gets harder from there. One of your tasks is to find three Mii's that look alike on three sets of rotating escalators and to make matters worse the three Mii's are never on the screen at the same time. Finding Miis is only made harder when it's a Mii that you didn't make. As far as the Multiplayer goes on this game, it can be fun but it is not a game you want to play with a bunch of people over because one of two things will happen. One: they will get incredible bored and not care of Two: they will get over evolved and try and help you out, which will not help you and just annoy you. For single player the gold medal is way to hard to get.

Pose Mii - The worst game out of the nine by far. The games concept is bad from the start: you are to chose from three different poses and match your Mii's pose to the pose created on falling bubbles. The first few levels are easy with the only problem being that the bubbles begin to fall faster (you can't let them fall all the way down.) The real difficulty rolls around at level four when you are forced to switch your Mii's pose to compensate for the bubbles. From there the bubbles only begin to fall faster. This doesn't help you when you're aiming for a gold medal because it is unbelievably hard to get. The other thing that might stop you from getting a medal is you may end up getting distracted by the weird backgrounds that are featured throughout the levels. They are on the WarioWare level of weirdness. They change from flowers to birds to bad acid trip. As far as the multiplayer goes it can provide a challenge because you and your partner each have a set of your own bubbles to pop. The thing is you can pop your partners bubbles for double the points or you can risk letting it pass you and take the chance that he will end up letting it fall all the way.

Shooting - This game is Duck Hunt only with targets and aliens... well I guess it's slightly different than Duck Hunt. The game is simple and easy, yet it can be very fun but repetitive. The designers attempted to avoid this by changing up the targets and making some worth more points and some cost you points (when you shot your face.) You will not sit down and play this game for hours on end while never getting bored. You may play this game a few times and get the gold medal (which is very easy to do, I got it on my first try) but nothing more. The multiplayer aspect doesn't change much from the original, there are just two people shooting at the same targets. The only big change is that if you shot your opponents face you get points. However, one of the best features of this game is the last level where six (three in multiplayer) of your Mii's are being abducted by aliens and you have to stop them. Everyone that you save is worth ten extra points. This can be especially fun when playing multiplayer because you can let your friends Mii's be abducted while you save your own and get the extra thirty points that might push you over for the win.

Billiards - The main problem is that the controls take getting used to. The controls involve heavy use of the the "B" button and it can kind of get confusing. The other problem for some people is the way you hit. You pull back with the Wiimote and let go of "B" as you push forward for a good and hard hit. Unfortunately some of my friends seem to have problems with this so I don't know how easier it is for beginners. Once you master the controls the game can actually be somewhat fun. However in single player the gold take a lot of practice and time because of the game you are forced to play. You are playing billiards, not pool. In other words you have to hit the target ball first and this can be really annoying if the ball is behind another one. This forces you to bank the ball and that is very hard to do with the camera set-up. The default camera is zoomed in on the cue and you can change it by hitting "A," which will show an overhead view. The problem with this is that the default view is still shown in the background of the new view and you can not accurately judge banking angles of the cue ball.

Charge! - This game is the best in my mind. It's amazingly fun... partly because you are riding a cow! Now come on what can get better than that? I could only say "It's Dangerous!" or Ocarina of Time (just kidding, but seriously riding cows is awesome.) There is only one big problem with this game and that is the controls. To go forward you have to tilt the Wiimote forward, and that can take a little bit of getting used to. Using a button to go forward would have been easier but not as fun, because after you're used to tilting forward you hardly even realize that your doing it. Other than that the controls are fairly simple; tilt to the side to turn and jerk upwards to jump. Now other than riding a cow you have to knock down scarecrows, which is the point of the game. You are given a time limit and you haver to knock down as many scarecrows as possible. Scarecrows are worth a point each and they come in sets of five. There are also scarecrows that move from side to side and are worth fifteen points (they are way to easy to hit.) The only negative for this game is that the gold medal is way to easy to get. Other than that every aspect is very well done, even the multiplayer.

Tanks! - The most complex game out of the pack, but you have seen this game many times before. You control a tank and you have to shot down the other tanks that appear on the screen (this is from a birds-eye view.) This game is fun for awhile, but it's nothing special because odds are you have played something very similar to this many times before. This is also the only game that doesn't use the motion sensing capability's of the Wii/Wiimote. It's also the only game that you need the Nunchuck...well you can use the D-Pad but that is much harder than the Nunchuck to use. In single player the medal is way to hard to get...or maybe I just suck but I like the multiplayer better because it's co-op. It's hard for me to say anything more because this is the game that I play the least and I expect to keep it that way.

The only reason that you should consider buying this game is for the Wiimote. Sure some of the games are fun but it's not worth it, not even for the multiplayer. You might want to buy this game if you are a complete noob at the Wii because it does a nice job of teaching you how to use it. If this game is ever released without the Wiimote and it's cheaper, than you should buy it for the multiplayer. I also forgot to mention that at the main screen where you choose the games, all the Miis that you made appear in the background, and they do stupid things that make them look ridiculous, such as swimming in mid-air.

Pros: Charge!, Shooting, Laser Hockey, Table Tennis, Billiards after awhile, Miis in the background.
Cons: Pose Mii, Tanks is nothing new, Billiards at first, Some medals are hard to get.

Review: Dan