Homemademech - Nintendo Wii Wii Play reviews

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Wii Play

Some Wii titles come with gimmicks. Gimmicks to compel you to buy them.
ExciteTruck, for instance, allows you to create your own download list of music to hear during the game which I suppose you’ll get off Wii’s online service.
Buy Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End or pre-order the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and get a certificate good for one ticket to see said movie (Pirates certificate expires one day after 4th of July so you better hop to it).

Wii Play is no different, though this game offers the biggest extra in all as every boxed set copy comes with a free Wiimote… or to be more precise spend $40 for a Wiimote and get a $10 game that goes with it. This is more along the lines of what you’re getting because, well, you shouldn’t be fooled into buying this game without the Wiimote extra… you’re basically paying for a Wiimote and a cheap game not worth owning separately and alone.

Yes, yes, Wii Play does offer up nine new mini games to supposedly “add” to your already mini game short experience you had with Wii Sports, and it adds more abilities to use your to date seldomly used Miis. That is all well and good, however the gaming experience provided by Wii Play is shorter lived than the expectations people seemed to have had for Spider-Man 3 once they sat in their theater seats and actually watched said movie. You should be able to blast through all 9 mini-games in one sitting (an actual requirement since the game insists you “unlock” all mini games before you play them), and once you do that there is no actual incentive to play them again short of the “need” to play pool or shoot targets.

Sure, some of the games on Wii Play did have potential. For instance there’s an homage to the classic NES game Duck Hunt here, or the game of pool, fishing, or table tennis. These are all offset by the fact that only 2 players (instead of the maximum four allowed by Wii Sports) can play Wii Play, and all challenges are dreadfully short. Unlike Wii Sports which provided a mix of mid to short experiences and somewhat addictive gameplay, the experiences are all short and none of them pack the addictiveness of Wii Sports.

Sure, you do have target shooting, but there is no randomizer to make the experience fresh each time. Once you got the pattern down on your first go it’ll be the same shooting experience each time over and over.
Pool is not the most addictive pool experience I ever seen. Even the pool mode in the re-release of Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas played better than this lackluster pool game, which is made worst by the fact that grasping the controls of this game isn’t the easiest thing to do (as you’re expected to treat the Wiimote like an actual pool stick, pulling it back and thrusting it forward to hit the “ball”).

The rest of the games are short, and those with some depth (an homage to the Atari 2600 game Combat) are not interesting enough to even consider even for a short time. Oh, and as for the Mii specific games one is a “Where’s Waldo” inspired game, while the other is too ridiculous for words… something about making your Mii conform to a certain shape and then overlaying them on falling bubbles to “pop” them.

Basically if you need a spare Wiimote and don’t mind paying $10 extra for another game that might fill short minutes of your life here and there? Then by all means buy Wii Play.
If you don’t need another controller then you don’t need Wii Play. Definitely don’t need it in and of itself as it is not worth the money they’ll probably ask you for said release.

A lack of content, a lack of incentive to keep coming back to play these so-so games, and a lack of overall interest in a half hazardly slapped together game meant to give the players something else to use their Miis on is no game to be playing $50 or so on (unless you need another Wiimote).
Wii Play drags the bottom of the gaming barrel for two lame duck hunts out of 5.

Nintendo Wii - Wii Play

Nintendo Wii Wii Play Reviews

Wii Play

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