Review: Wii Play (Wii)

I pre-ordered this game and got it yesterday from the EB Games at Eaton Centre.

Wii Play is the game packaged with Nintendo Wii's, to my knowledge, for people in Europe and Australia and it comes with a Wiimote. It's $60, so really you are paying for a Wiimote and the game is a throw-in.

It has many games, similar to Wii Sports. But don't get these two games mixed up. Wii Sports has won many awards, including TIME's Best Game of the Year. Wii Play is a whole 'nother story.

Wii Play is kind of like a tutorial disc for the Wii system. It trains users on how to use the Wiimote. Each game is really just a test for you to see if you know how to use the Wiimote. Here is a review for each of the games.

1. Taanks

Tanks is actually fun, and it's quite challenging. You moved your tank around the screen that will often have walls and barriers, with the nunchuck thumbstick, or with the directional pad on the wiimote (if you don't have the nunchuk attachment -- since the game only comes with the wiimote), and you used the trigger B to shoot. The tank can fire up to 5 shots at a time, and then you ahve to wait for each shell to explode before you can fire more. Each shell bounces once off a wall before exploding on its next target. Each level pits you against anywhere between 1-6 tanks, and each of the enemies get progressively harder with themselves getting better and better weapons. After a few tries I got up to level 14. After every 5 levels you get a free life, and you start with 3.

This is a fun game, and I would almost say that I would have paid $10 for this game alone. And it's so simple. I'm sure I played a game just like this 20 years ago on my Atari 2600.

2. Mii Pose

Mii Pose. How do I explain this. Your Mii can pose in 3 ways, and you can switch from pose to pose by hitting A or B. Aside from that, you can tilt your Mii by tilting the wiimote. Now, bubbles start falling down with the Mii posed in a certain way and tilted, and you need to match your Mii (controlled by your wiimote) to the Bubble Mii.

This game is virtually unplayable.

3. Fiishing

Okay. You have this pole, right. And it has a hook. And you dip the pole into this pool, and the fish swim around. You wait, a fish bites, and you pull up on the wiimote and there! You caught a fish. The bigger the fish, the more points, and if the littlest fish bites, you lose points.

Another unplayable game beyond the first 30 seconds when you realize you have absolutely no control over that little fish that makes you lose points.

4. Find Mii

There are several modes that randomly appear in this particular game. Basically, your Mii, as in the one you designed yourself, will be on the screen with several other Mii's, some that you created, some that are just randomly generated, and you have 30 seconds to find him/her. The quicker you find it, the better, as you get more time added to your total for the next one.

The next one is a room of 15, or 20, or 10 Mii's, and you have to pick the two who are the same. It sounds easy but I got eliminated on one of these.

Another one is they are all walking up and down a street, and one guy is faster than the rest. You pick the fastest to move on. There was one level where they were all swimming and one was swimming faster.

Another one is to pick 2 who are not behaving the same as the rest. The one I got was, they were all watching tennis, heads going back and forth based on the tennis match, but two were looking in the opposite direction.

This game is somewhat playable. I could see it being fun in a party setting where two people are competing to find the matches.

5. Shootiing

This is duck hunt, only if you hit a duck, it's only a bonus. There's 5 levels:

1. Shoot targets.
2. Shoot clay discs
3. Shoot bugs?
4. I can't remember
5. 10 of your Mii's are running around a field, and UFO's try to grab them. You need to shoot the UFO's. You stay alive as long as there is at least one Mii left. Waves and waves of UFO's com.

6. Pool/Biilliards

This game has some really cool physics.. You can put some *unbelievable* spin on a ball. But I really can't see much fun in this beyond that. It is really crappy.

7. Piing Pong

This game had so much potential. Having played Wii Tennis, I really thought this would be THE GAME for Wii Play. I was wrong.

Ping Pong is nothing more than you moving side to side like playing Pong. You can't put spin on the ball, you can't even pick the direction really. You just act like the paddle and be at the right spot to have it bounce off you. It is really a complete waste of time.

8. Aiir Hockey

Imagine what I just described to you about Ping Pong. Add neon lights.

9. Some kind of cow race

You turn the wiimote horizontally. Twisting forward is accelerate, pulling back is breaks, and then turn it like a wheel for a car. To jump, you lift the remote up.

So you're a cow. And your goal is to hit other cows. And avoid hurdles. And finish the race. Again I'm sure this game is better with two players. It has to be.


I think that's all of them. If there was another, I forgot it because.. well, it deserved to be forgotten, much like these other ones.

Sound: 6/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 6/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it was practically free when you consider it game with a wiimote, which is btw, one of the hardest things to find in any store these days)
Fun Factor: 2/10

Overall score: 32/50.

Edit:

I liked this particular review, from 1UP on Wii Play:
"Play is made for people who don't really like games, and if you're someone who really does, that's a problem. Sure, most of these minigames are fun...for about 10 minutes. But hey, maybe your grandma will want to marry it."