After Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Music, Nintendo presents Wii Sports Resort, the latest addition to the mini-game compilation genre. The game takes you to Wuhu Island, a charming and colourful tropical island, where twelve activities are waiting for you. Archery, Swordplay, Basketball, Wakeboarding, Cycling, Power Cruising, Frisbee, Canoeing and Air Sports alongside three activities from both the original Wii Sports (Bowling and Golf) and Wii Play (Table Tennis) are being featured.  Most of them  carry extra activities. Up to twelve additional variants can be unlocked while playing some of the activities. 

All right, now that you know what Wii Sports Resort offers, let’s see how each of them work. As in most of all mini-compilation titles, not all of them are great. However, your precious time (and money) will be well spent.


Gameplay

Powercrusing will require holding both the Wii remote and Nunchuk as if you were gripping handlebars. Accelerate with the B button and tilt the Wii remote and Nunchuk left and right to steer your watercraft. It was so fun and responsive that it actually made me wonder if Nintendo would ever release a Wii version of Waverace. Powercrusing offers a Slalom Course and a Versus mode as playable variants and both are very fun.

Air Sports is broken into three gameplay modes, all three requiring you to hold the Wii remote gently between your fingers and tilt it in order to accomplish the desired moving effect. Skydiving lets you guide your Mii as you fall through the sky and since other Mii’s will be joining you, you might as well link up and catch as many Mii characters as possible. In Island Flyover, you control the Wii remote like a paper plane in order to explore the island. Lastly but not least, Dogfight pits you against another player as your goal will be to knock out your opponent’s balloons. Whoever pops the most balloons wins the game. Certainly, this is the most interesting variant of the whole Air Sports mini-game selection. Skydiving and Island Flyover are boring.

In Frisbee, you will have to throw the disc at the target on the beach sand so your little dog can run and catch it. The closer to the center your Frisbee lands, the more points you will score. At a certain time, big red balloons will appear. Put your dexterity to the test by popping them and score the extra points. The fun gets even better once you unlock Frisbee Golf which will allow you to play on golf courses with three discs. Your goal will be to make your Frisbee land on the glowing pillar on the green in as few throws as possible. Interesting and amusing however, there’s a little thing that you should know; the WiiMotionPlus is so accurate at detecting your arm and wrist movements that actually being able to throw the Frisbee correctly may be a bit more difficult than you will initially think. The game does offer an automatic control to overcome your difficulty woes. It will help you until you get into the groove of things.


Another activity that takes full advantage of the WiiMotionPlus technology is Swordplay. Hold the Wii remote like you were holding a sword (or lightsaber if you prefer) and attack. While holding the B button, you can wield the Wii remote to different directions to block incoming attacks. Swordplay features three variants: Duel, Speed Slice and Showdown. Duel will pit you against your opponent as both are trying to knock the other from the platform. Speed Slice determines who can slice the fastest by cutting the various objects in the direction indicated. As for Showdown, enemy swordfighters will come towards you and your goal will be to get rid of them by knocking them down.

Basketball is among my favourites activities. Press B to take a ball from the rack, return the Wii remote to a vertical position and with a real shooting motion, shoot the ball. If you’re a basketball player, you will find out that your wrist snapping and the timing at which you will release the B button (to create hang-time) will affect your shooting accuracy. Being a basketball coach (and ex semi-pro player), I was really curious to see if Nintendo would really pull it off and they did. Sadly, they stopped halfway. The basketball activity fails where the Tennis activity in the original Wii Sports did. You don’t have any  true control over your Mii and/or teammates. On offence, you can either shoot or pass by pressing buttons while the defense can be done by waggling the Wii remote to steal or block. Instead, you will find yourself spending most of your time winning the three point contest, making it rain like Lil’ Wayne! That’s good enough for me.

But without any doubt, I have to say that Archery is my favourite of all the twelve activities thanks to its incredible precise and easy controls. Hold the Wii remote in one hand and the Nunchuk in the other. Hold the A button to get ready and then hold the Z button to draw the bow. Pull the Nunchuk towards you to zoom into the target and release the Z button to fire the arrow. I’ve been playing this mode like crazy and so will you. It’s almost a shame that it doesn’t carry any extra unlockable variants.
Bowling, Golf (Wii Sports) and Table Tennis (Wii Play) are making a comeback in Wii Sports Resort, you will enjoy playing them once again as the WiiMotionPlus add-on enhances them for the better. Table Tennis and Golf are certainly the activities who profit from WiiMotionPlus the most since now you can put effects on your hits. As for Bowling, it detects your wrist twisting and all but it remains practically the same Bowling from three years ago.


Unfortunately, not all the games offered are that fun to play. For instance, Cycling asks you to hold both the Wiimote and Nunchuk upright and then do alternate swinging in order to recreate the pedaling motion. Lean the Wii remote left or right (while swinging) to turn. If you “pedal” too hard, your Mii will get tired and will stop for a break, lucky him. Cycling’s repetitiveness and exhaustive nature will not put a smile on your face very often. Wakeboarding is another mini-game that will grow to be unpopular but not because it’s exhaustive but mainly because the controls lack responsiveness and precision. By holding and gripping the Wii remote sideways with both your hands, Wakeboarding requires you to tilt the Wii remote left and right to carve through the waves and pull up to jump over waves for tricks. Sounds fun on paper but not in execution. It will require patience to actually be able to pull-off cool tricks and land without falling. As for Canoeing, mimicking the oar paddling by alternating between your left and right sides is responsive but grows to be very boring, unless you play it with more than 2 players. Laughing at your friend’s lack of communication and cohesiveness is priceless but that’s the only real fun you’ll be getting. In the end, the chances that you will end up ignoring these activities to the profit of the others are high.

There’s a reason why Wii Sports Resort comes with the WiiMotionPlus accessory and that’s because it needs it. The game won’t work without it. I won’t complain about the fact that you need more than one Wii Motion Plus accessory to enjoy multiplayer action (because you can still pass the controller). In spite of this, only one thing really annoyed me and that’s the constant calibration. Every time you switch between sports, the game will ask you to set the Wii remote on a flat surface so the controller can pick up the signal and recalibrate itself. And it has to be on a flat unmovable surface. Not your lap, not the couch, it has to be a flat surface.

Graphics & Sounds

Think of Wii Sports…only with improved visuals. That’s exactly what you will get. I’m not talking about high-quality visual advancement though. It remains a Wii game. It’s pretty and colourful but not much of a piece of art.

Same goes for the audio. The only difference compared to the original Wii Sports is the music theme since you are spending your virtual vacation on a tropical island. It’s simple and effective.

Value

To assume that the 46 million Wii users who own Wii Sports will buy the sequel is too easy. That’s not the real point. Since Wii Sports and Wii Play shipped, an incredible number of mini-game compilations have seen the light and none of them have achieved what Nintendo managed to do. Wii Sports Resort does it right. Still, most of the 12 activities offered are all worth spending money on. You can also see it the other way: Wii Motion Plus alone goes for $25 at retail, which means that Wii Sports Resort would sell for around $35. If you paid that same money when games like Game Party 2 or Go Play! Circus Play launched on day one, you can definitely spend the money on Wii Sports Resort.


Conclusion

More accessible and way more interesting than its predecessor, Wii Sports Resort isn’t only the best compilation of mini-games to be offered on the Wii console in a while but also a great way to display what the Wii Motion Plus accessory can do. However, keep in mind that the real fun of Wii Sports Resort will come out when you play in groups. If you like playing solo, this might not be the best game for you.