Despite the fact that E3 has been over for a week now, I still can’t stop thinking about all of the awesome games I had the privilege of playing during the show. And, even though a majority of hardcore gamers (or, as Nintendo named labeled them during their press conference, “Active” gamers) still scoff at the mainstream Wii games, I can personally attest to the fact that these gamers need to at least try this Wii Sports iteration out if only for the amazing precision of control that its pack-in peripheral, the Wii Motion Plus, provides.
First and foremost, I was given the opportunity to try out the new Golf mini-game, the greatest and most noticeable example of the Wii Motion Plus’ precision over the basic Wii Remote’s control. In the original Wii Sports, Golf acted as a fun novelty use of the Wii Remote’s control immersion since almost anyone could grasp the idea of swinging the Wii Remote like a golf club but because the Wii Remote did not have 1:1 control functionality, the Golf mini-game ultimately failed. Club swings would occasionally be recorded as too hard when the player only lightly flicked their wrist and vice versa. However, using the Motion Plus pack-in, Golf in Wii Sports Resort actually feels like you are swinging a golf club and the swing power meter now curves to tell the player what direction they are going to hit in.
However, don’t be turned off thinking that Resort acts merely as an expansion pack of the original Wii Sports using a tighter control scheme since there are plenty of new sports in this new iteration for the player to try out. In the build I played on the show floor at E3 (which was near-final), Wii Sports Resort included a dozen different sports ranging from the two upgrades of previous sports Golf and Bowling as well as brand-new activities such as Basketball, Cycling, Archery (easily the best-feeling game in the package), Wake boarding, Swordplay and even Air Sports (which is the final fleshed out version of the long-awaited airplane demo that was shown back at E3 2006). On top of the dozen sports included in this new package, each of the sports also have multiple different modes to play in. For example, Basketball has a three-point shootout mode as well as a three-on-three pickup game and Air Sports includes a balloon pop game as well as a dogfight feature.
Naturally, when I heard about this dogfight feature, which really has not been publicized much since its announcement at E3, I had to try it out for myself on the show floor. The controls are just what you would expect, the player holds the Wii Remote like a paper airplane and using the slightest motion of their wrist can controls where the plane goes. The player can make the plane do somersaults, barrel rolls (my personal favorite) and even turbo boost if you slightly push the remote straight forward. Everything felt extremely intuitive and all the only button the player is forced to press is A which causes the plane to begin shooting out blue bullets. With the attractive demonstration girl rooting for me, I was able to shoot down 12 planes in a row before finally getting shot down myself only to have my Mii jump out of my downed plane in a parachute. The mode was charming and I can easily see myself getting lost in this sport when the game is finally released.
Another new sport that I found myself addicted to on the show floor was Swordplay. In addition to playing the one-on-one feature with fellow GamingVice writer Kevin immediately following the Nintendo press conference, I also had the opportunity to play both of the other Swordplay modes included in Wii Sports Resort. One of these modes was a stand-off mode where each player was thrown an object and had to slice it in the direction that was told to them. This was fun but easily my least favorite of the three Swordplay games, especially since I played it directly following my favorite Swordplay mode, Bridge Fight.
In this one player mode, the player begins on one side of a long bridge that crosses high over Wuhu Island (the island resort of the game’s title) and the player needs to make it to the the other side within the allotted time. The catch is that the player must take out the swarms of Miis with swords that charge at them from the other side of the bridge and eventually a “boss” Mii that can only be knocked of the bridge after multiple hits. Not only was this mode visually hilarious since the image of Miis falling off of a tall bridge screaming is funny in and of itself but the Bridge Fight mode was also rather exhilarating. The precise sword control and waves of attacking Miis made me genuinely feel as though I was playing a scene from a classic samurai film where the protagonist takes down swarm after swarm of enemies only to come out of the whole unscathed and looking like, for lack of a better term, a bad-ass.
Looking back on E3 2009, Wii Sports Resort, while it might not have been as flashy as Bayonetta and APB or as “AAA” as New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Left 4 Dead 2, was the game on the show floor that I found myself coming back to again and again at the end each day’s show. Honestly, I can’t wait to get on my hands on the game again next month so I can play more.
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Wii Sports Resort will be released on July 26th, 2009 and will be bundled with the Wii Motion Plus accessory.
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Definitely looks interesting, the Swordplay could be awesome.
I cannot wait for this! Nice article, Roger.
Oh, quick question, almost forgot. How was the cycling? You didn’t descirbe it in detail in the article so I don’t know if you actually got to play it during E3 but I’m interested as to how the WiiMotionPlus and cycling works.