If not free, would you’ve bought Wii Sports?
Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 1:45pm by Derek
Wii Sports reached yet another milestone this week, surpassing 3 million copies sold in Japan.
It seems Wii sales figures are always in the headlines, so this figure really doesn’t seem too interesting initially. But realize in Japan, Wii Sports was not a free pack-in with the console.
In the Land of the Rising Sun, Wii Sports is sold separately for 4,800 yen, roughly 45 dollars. Consider that the Wii console has sold 6 million units in Japan; simple division provides that about 1 in 2 Japanese Wii owners has plucked down the cash for Wii Sports.
But would that happen in the States? Many American critics slammed Wii Sports for being too shallow, some going as far as to call it an “overly publicized demo” (EGM, Jan. 2007). So I decided to revisit Wii Sports and find out; would I have purchased the game at launch, or is Wii Sports’ charm wholly derived from its Western freeness?
It is perhaps worth mentioning what could be a disclaimer, depending on your levels of cynicism. I loved the idea of tracking of my fitness age when I first played Wii Sports, and I have continued to do so on a semi-daily basis since. Every three or four days, I play Wii Sports for roughly 7 or 8 minutes. I load the game, complete three mini-fitness tests, check out my newly calculated age and resulting charts, head back to the Wii Menu and go about my gaming business.
So granted, my Wii Sports disc certainly isn’t a dusty relic with which I relate only through memory, the type of situation from which most game revisits occur. But aside from those few minutes a week, I have not really dug into a Wii Sports play session since last year.
Until today, that is. As soon as I had finished my fitness age tests, I started playing tennis.
I was surprised to see my skill level for tennis; I still had “pro” status, not to mention a skill level of more than 1900. And after only a few swings of my racket, I immediately got my virtual tennis groove back. I beat the feisty CPU team of Sarah and Elisa, and then remembered I had gotten to the point in Wii Sports tennis that Sarah and Elisa were the only team left to play. No matter how many times I beat Sarah and Elisa, I would be forced to play them again next time.
My favorite Wii sport for single-player outings, though, is still baseball. Unlike in tennis, progressing against CPU-controlled teams is quite challenging, and scraping together enough runs to beat them through three innings is very rewarding. Motion-controlled pitching and batting is still ridiculously fun, too. Slamming a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the third inning with a quick swing of the Wii remote is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in a video game. For a moment, you really feel like a triumphant Gary Sheffield or Andy Van Slyke (I’m from Pittsburgh, deal with it). But for all its greatness, Wii Sports baseball also makes me yearn for a deeper baseball experience on Wii built from the same mechanics.
Mario Super Sluggers, I’m looking at you.
I also really enjoyed golf and bowling, the two slowest, most relaxing games in the package. They still provide a welcome contrast from the tense challenge of baseball and the fast-paced swinging of tennis. But in terms of their single-player versions, they are merely practice sessions for their excellent multiplayer modes.
Speaking of multiplayer, that is where Wii Sports still shines and, quite obviously, what it was primarily made for. Each of the included games, even the otherwise mediocre boxing, is an absolute blast with multiplayer. I invited some friends over for another Wii get-together to give the five Wii Sports games some multiplayer runs, and a play session I expected to be an hour or so long quickly extended itself into a three-hour Wii Sports marathon, circa Dec. 2006.
Despite the imitators that have come since, Wii Sports remains one of Wii’s best examples of motion control implementation. Swinging the Wii remote like a tennis racket, complete with spins and twists of the wrist for angled shots, still works beautifully. Pitching a baseball works well, too, and smacking homers still feels spectacular. Bowling is perhaps the best motion-controlled sport of the bunch, with spinning and speed all determined by the players’ release.
After revisiting Wii Sports, it is easy to see why so many games have struggled to emulate what it achieved. It just did it so damn well.
Most of what I’m writing is likely prior knowledge to most, as Wii Sports has been so well-chronicled over the last few years. But there is something inexplicably magical about playing Wii’s premier launch title. As a critic, I could slam Wii Sports for a list of standard grievances a mile long, but in the end, they just don’t seem to matter. One swing of the Wii remote is all it takes to understand.
Or in this case, remember.
But would I have bought this game? Would you have? Even playing through it again didn’t have me entirely convinced that I would be willing to spend 45 dollars on such a shallow package. But browsing my Wii message board afterward, I found countless posts from Wii Sports — a 55 fitness age from a friend here, a terrible +4 golfing high score from another there — that brought back a flood of memories from midnight-and-beyond bowling and tennis sessions with friends over the last few years…all from a “tech demo.”
For the countless laughs and dozens of good times it has provided, 45 dollars seems a steal for a game like Wii Sports. Free pack-in or otherwise, this is a game I would have owned either way.
But would you have bought Wii Sports?
May 31st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
The only way I would have bought it if it was in a Wii Play like pack-in. $10 and nothing more. It really is just a tech demo.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I would buy WII sports full price. I still play that game with friends and family.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Yes, but not for $45. It would have to be $19.99 to $24.99
I really would like to see a sequal to it though.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Ditto to neko to kurama’s post.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Wow, I’m completely opposite from those posting above.
Wii Sports is NOT just a tech demo - it is the perfect party game. It is something that anyone can pick up and play within minutes, but remains challenging for a long time. It is something that offers more variety than any “full featured” sports game, by giving you a taste of everything in one delicious main course. Most importantly, it is a gaming experience that simply can’t be matched on any other console.
Would I pay full price for Wii Sports? Definitely. It is one of the defining games for Nintendo’s latest console, and holds a certain magic that few other games have been able to capture.
(For the record, the only other game coming to mind that is this good would be Boom Blox.)
May 31st, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Wii Sports is only a tech demo if you’re a single-player saddo with no friends or family. If you do have other people in your life who haven’t been gamers till now, it’s easily worth the $40 they would have sold it for separately in the US.
The fact that they didn’t charge extra for it is largely responsible for the Wii wiping the floor with everything else, saleswise.
Where Nintendo and its third parties have largely failed to follow up is in the production of fully fleshed-out, but still simple to play, versions of the sports included in Wii Sports (and others in the same vein as well.)
May 31st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I just got a Wii and we also got one for me and my friends hangout. Wii sport is quite new for us. We played it few days last summer maybe. And again for one day few months earlier.
This stuff is 2006, we are in 2008 and motion controlling fad is dieing, its not exciting to move your hand and score in the game any more…I guess people want deeper game with more challenges, levels(stages?), different areas to bowl and play tennis(i know 2 exist). more skilled motion sensing should be used.
I think wii sport in a lot of ways is, as they say, combined is worth more than the sum of its part. I think if Wii Sport sold seperately it will get a 6-7/10 score at best. People who will buy the wii will think of mario and mario kart to play and skip on this one. But combined, it made Wii selling 25 million consoles…I think thats the highest any console ever reached in one year…at least launch year…
People knew if they buy that console they get to play this fun motion sensing game. So they did…plus combined for the price of $250 is a great deal next to $300 sold separately. If you think about it, another $100 or less Illget 20gb storage, HD graphics, and best games out there like gta,gears, bioshock,fable, halo……
May 31st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I’d buy were it not a bundle.
May 31st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I’d pay $40.
I bought WiiPlay by itself for $20, since I had 4 Wiimotes since launch.
May 31st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
if they were to promote it as much as they had done, i think i still would, but i wouldnt have paid more than $30 for it…
May 31st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I agree with ejamer. I would pay $50 by this game, it is that good. One of the best uses of wiimote so far.
May 31st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
No.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I think a lot of praise for the game is due to the fact that its free. If this game were 45-50, I’d feel like I was getting bent over. That said, I’d pay 10 bucks for it.
While its fun to play, and still one of the best games to use motion controls, I haven’t played it since 2007, and may not play it again until 2010.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Would I have bought Wii Sports if it wasn’t free? Maybe….maybe not. Depends on if it had the same deal that Wii Play got. Would it have sold as much as a stand alone game? Of course not. However; Nintendo was not going to release Wii without a pack-in title simply because Nintendo was introducing new values of gameplay and they needed software to demonstrate the values brought to the table by the Wii Remote. If it wasn’t Wii Sports as the pack-in; it would probably have been Wii Play. The difference would be Wii Sports would have Wii Play’s sales right now; and Wii Play would have Wii Sports sales right now. (Hint: one is nearing 25 million and one is over 12 million which is still more than the average blockbuster sells nowdays pack in or not)
May 31st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
No, because I see it more like a “tech demo” than a full game.
Although if they put in a Wii Remote for 29.95 I’d think about it.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Definately. it’s wii sports that got my aunt and uncle playing a video game for the first time in, well, i’ve never known them to play video games. I’ve loved every second of play and i’m always going back to it for a boxing match or a quick go at tennis. It’s an excellent game and I’d certainly have paid full price for it.
Wii play was a tech demo, I played it for 20 minutes and never played it since. Wii sports is not a tech demo.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
If the Wii was $200 and Wii Sports $45, definitely. And actually I DID buy the game again after my first disc died for no apparent reason and had to get a new one.
So yes, I would and I DID.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I don’t think I would buy it for myself. But I would get get it for my parents for sure.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:52 pm
“I don’t think I would buy it for myself. But I would get get it for my parents for sure.”
Same here, this is where the game shines.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Yep, i’d buy WiiSports if it hadn’t been bundled. Great question to bring up though. It was the most pivotally brilliant move that Nintendo could have done to pack it in, but I still would have bought it seeing the hype after the Wii came on the scene.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I feel like Wii Sports is THE killer app of the current console generation. It’s the single best reason to buy a Wii. If they were sold separately and I had a wii and didn’t buy Wii Sports I would’ve been making a huge mistake.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Absolutely - and I’d pay full price if necessary.
I have three consoles and shitloads of games, and Wii Sports still clocks up the hours when friends are over. It remains the only game in the library that my girlfriend is interested in playing.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Still want a copy if it is not free! Unless it is very expensive. If it is under $50, I will still want to have one
May 31st, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Y E S
It is one of the most fun and innovative controlled games I have played. Mostly in group play where it excels, but still good fun in single player.
Wii sports is one of only a handful of games for the Wii that are truly ,absolutely amazing. It is in an elite list of AAA titles for the Wii, along with games like SuperMario galaxy, Zelda, Metroid prime 3 and Mario Kart.
Wii sports is one of this generations best titles, on ALL systems. And that, says a LOT. Worth a good 40bucks easy.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Before we heard of the game being bundled; it was one of my top 5 games I wanted to get for the Wii.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
If it were bundled like WiiPlay it’d be a definite. By itself though, I would have probably waited for a price drop or a used copy.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:51 am
Wii Sports is easily one of the most significant titles in video games, ever. The only other games on the Wii that I’ve spent as much time with are Mario Kart and Brawl. So yes, definitely would buy at $45.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:55 am
yes i would have its the best party game ever made.
June 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Absolutely yes. Want it or not, it’s a revolutionary game. And anyway, I paid 50 for Wario Ware, so I wouldn’t thought twice for buying Wi Sports.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:27 am
I wouldn’t have bought it.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I’m on a budget, and wouldn’t have paid $45 for Wii Sports, but I would have paid something like $20 for it.
On a similar note, my future in-laws loved playing Wii Sports when I’d bring over my Wii, actually bought a Wii just so they could play Wii Sports. This also led to Wii Play, and Mario Kart Wii; as well as potentially Wii Fit finding its way into their library.
June 1st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Most likely, I wouldn’t have bought. Heck, I haven’t even popped it in my system since I first bought the system in November.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:34 am
no, i don’t like sports games.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Yes - at a budget price.
English tip: avoid the contraction “you’ve”
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:50 pm
I would not have paid $50 for it, because to me it’s not worth $50. I would pay $10 like the Wii Play thing, if packaged with a Wiimote. It most definitely is a glorified tech demo to me. Just because it got grandpas, parents, etc. to play video games doesn’t make it suddenly anything more.
Although I do agree that it’s still by far the best use of the Wiimote/motion controls. Other than maybe Metroid Prime 3, nothing has even come close.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I’d probably pay $20-$30 for this game. There’s more replay value than Wii Play, but it’s not enough to justify a full game.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Yes, I would have bought it.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
i would have and most nintendo fans would have, except for those who thought shinier dvds and seing sweat on characters was next gen.