In 2005, Nintendo was sitting on some pretty hot technology. Instead of a joystick for its next console—then named Revolution—the company planned to release a perplexing white TV remote capable of sensing motion. If only Nintendo had an equally smoking game to showcase what the controls could do.
Fast forward to today. That software turned out to be Wii Sports, which has since become a cultural phenomenon and best-selling game of the decade. Now Nintendo is releasing the first sequel to the game in the form of Wii Sports Resort. How does it stack up? It’s not as revolutionary as the original, but there are a half dozen events you’ll keep coming back to, archery primary among them.
The trouble with Wii Sports Resort is that its available options were limited during development, since Nintendo had already used the most logical and appropriate choices for the first game. You know: Tennis, Bowling, Golf, and Baseball (let’s try and forget you-know-who). In that sense, Resort gets the leftovers; the sloppy seconds. That said, more than half of the playable games are still inspired.
To help you navigate the good from the bad, here are the best new events, in order of awesomeness, with comparative commentary on returning events:
Memorable
- Archery. Best. Game. On. Disc. Whether playing alone or against a friend, the controls in Archery are phenomenal. A lot of reviewers use the phrase “satisfying controls” when describing modern games. This one really is—the creme de la creme. 12 moving targets, wind factor, and obstacles make the chase for the high score a never ending story.
- Wakeboarding. Hold the Wii Remote sideways like holding a tow rope. Thrust the controller up for massive air. Elegantly simple. Everlasting enjoyment.
- Table Tennis. And you thought Bowling controlled well. Wait until you play Table Tennis, which is shockingly faithful to the real thing. Maybe even better than the real thing since you don’t have to chase down balls. Awesome two-player game.
- Air Sports. A Pilot Wings killer. There I said. Hold the Wii remote like a paper airplane, and trust your basic understanding of flight to move around the island. Oh, and press “a” to shoot. That’s right. Two-player dog fights come standard.
- Basketball. This game is hard. And I’ve been known to play a little recreational b-ball. Nevertheless, Basketball works, and it feels really good to drown five three pointers in a row, provided you have your jump, trajectory, timing and follow through in sync.
I heard that sword play had a calibration that you can use during the gameplay. Supposed to make it really responsive.
…no wifi??? with wii-speak???… ….maybe for Wii Sports 3?
I really liked “you-know-who.” Seriously, no joke. There was a learning curve to it, but once you wrap your head around the controls it’s pretty fun.
I think you may have given up too quick on sword play. From every other outlet I’ve read the word has been that it works really well. Did you have any uv lights behind you, (candle, sun light, mirror, burning high school diploma) because if you did then the Wiimote+ would have gotten confused thinking it was pointing at the sensor bar when in reality it was pointing 180 degrees in the other direction?
You might want to try it after sundown to be sure it’s as bad as you think. Maybe it really is broken. Oh and pushing down arrow on the d-pad re-calibrates it for you.
cheers
It is lame that they only include one motion-plus unit with this game. They should include two. $20 for a 2nd motion-plus is too much. I don’t mind all of the peripherals that Nintendo puts out because at least they are trying to give us new gameplay options to choose from, that is good. Couldn’t they at least put two of them in the game? Nintendo….? Later.
No matter what the scores are, Wii Sports Resort will sell. But Nintendo better hurry up and make the next Wii Sports. They better not wait almost 3 years between releases because Resort may not be around that long, but it WILL sell.
I absolutely love that every single review of this game chooses a different combination of sports to label good or bad. To me that shows that there’s something intrinsic about good motion controls that mean some people are never going to get used to them, or at least find them intuitive, in some contexts. Some people are the kind of people that take to motion controlled sword fighting, some aren’t. Some people find wakeboarding exhilarating, others find it dull.
At the very least it seems like there’s at least three or four sports in resorts that every single reviewer loves, they’re just different from reviewer to reviewer.
@DOCR. Couldn’t agree more. That’s what makes Wii so universal.
Wow, 4.5 stars out of 5 and I’ll I was basically reading was how bad the game. I’m a bit confused. Considering you only liked, what, 4 of the 10 games, you should have given it a four out of 10.
Until I play it, can’t agree or disagree with you, but that’s a really kind rating for reading very little positives.
hmm gotta disagree with what u said about sword play, personally I thought it worked realy really well. especially the object slicing game it was spot on. give it another try
air sports controls for a new starfox. think about it
I think Yahtzee had the ultimate review on this Wii game:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/844-Wii-Sports-Resort
A classic!