I’ve jumped back aboard the Nintendo bandwagon, and this means that I have bought Nintendo’s new console, the Wii. The Wii comes packaged with the game Wii Sports, mainly for the purpose of showing off what the Wii’s unique controller can do. Wii Sports is a package of five sports games on one disc, the sports being tennis, golf, bowling, baseball, and boxing, each of which is controlled in a different way than most conventional sports games are.

Usually when I’m reviewing, I’m telling you if you should buy the game or not, but if you get a Wii, you’ll probably get this game whether you like it or not. So it’s simply a Review of how good the game is, not a recommendation of whether to buy it or not. And of course, it’s reviewed on the usual scale of 0 to 4 stars.

Graphics: no stars
Nintendo’s focus with the Wii is on gameplay, and by the look of this game’s graphics, it’s clear the focus isn’t on graphics. The graphics aren’t quite N64-quality, but they’re close, especially the characters. There are many GameCube games that look better than this one. I know, I know, the focus of this game isn’t on the graphics. And it doesn’t really affect how much you enjoy it. Still, the graphics are quite awful, and there’s no way around that fact.

Sound: ***
The game’s music is surprisingly good. The title music in particular is good. Why is this a surprise to me? I guess I’ve had low expectations lately in video game music, as it’s gone downhill since the days of the N64 when it was perhaps at its peak. Some of the music is pretty boring, but it’s not annoying. It’s relaxing music, which you may or may not like. I don’t really mind it. The sound effects are great, and there’s nothing really to complain about. It’s a shame the sound that actually comes from the controller is such low-quality, which is the fault of the controller more than the game.

Difficulty: *
All five games are very easy to understand how to play, although I had to at least add in one star because of the difficulty with getting on base in baseball (to be addressed later). Nintendo was obviously going for an easy-to-learn, pick-up-and-play game, and they succeeded in doing that.

Controls: ****
This is what the Wii’s all about, the controls, right? The goal of this game is really to make playing the sports feel more realistic. You swing the remote like a tennis racket or a baseball bat. You hold the remote like a golf club, then swing it the way you would a real club. You “bowl” the remote when bowling, and you use both the remote and the nunchuck for boxing. The controls are no problem; it’s completely easy to figure out how they work. Wii Sports was clearly a way for Nintendo to show off what the remote can do as far as controlling a game, and it succeeds in a big, big way.

Gameplay:
I will break down the gameplay into the five separate games featured in Wii Sports: Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Bowling, and Boxing.

Tennis: ***
Tennis is simple enough: simply swing the remote and hit the ball. Swing it one way for a forehand shot, and the opposite way for a backhand shot. You can even make your shots into lob shots. It really gives you the feel of swinging a tennis racket, and having to choose which way you want to swing it. It’s quite a fun game to play, especially against another human.

Tennis suffers from the fact that you can’t move your character; the computer moves it for you. Imagine a game where you use the nunchuck to move your character around, into a position in which you want, and still control the racket with your remote. That’s what I want to play. You may think this would make the game harder, but in reality it would make things easier because you’d be able to control where your character goes on the court, and thus have more control over where they hit the ball. Often you get into rather monotonous volleys because your character is trapped in one position simply hitting the ball to the same spot over and over again. Moving your character could allow you to angle your shot. Hopefully this is what Nintendo does for the inevitable Mario Tennis for the Wii.

Golf: **½
Golf is not exactly a revolutionary game; there have been golf simulators that allow people to do essentially the same thing, in order to practice their golf game. Of course those have not been in a video game like this, however. In order to make things simpler, the game gives you only a driver, an iron, a wedge, and a putter. You swing the remote like a golf club, keeping in mind the meter on the screen that will help you determine how far you’ll hit the ball (especially important on putts).

While the game is fun, it suffers from problems of its own. To begin with, why must your drive slice in one way or another if you put too much on it? Slicing should be determined by whether you move the remote to one side or another, not by just pulling it back too far. I want to be able to put some power into my swings, like a real golfer does, not try to hit some sort of half-powered shot off the tee. Putting is frustrating as well; it’s very hard to get the power right when you’re on the green, and this can turn a birdie situation into a double-bogey.

Baseball: no stars
Strange that the most mainstream of the five sports is also the worst in this game. While in baseball you hold and swing the remote like a bat, while also swinging the remote forward to pitch, you’ll quickly discover that this game is a true pitcher’s game. It’s incredibly difficult to get a hit. You’ll hit way too many foul balls, and the ones you do get in play will usually be outs. Scoring is at a huge premium, and given you get only three innings, you don’t have much time to get your offense going.

This game is laughable to any baseball fan, given the fact that it doesn’t even resemble the game when it comes to fielding and running. These are controlled by the computer, while it could have been a lot more fun to use the nunchuck and do it yourself. In addition, a player doesn’t even need to catch a ball to make an out; if it’s in the infield, and it rolls to a fielder, it’s an automatic out. Running the bases? That doesn’t occur until after the ball is fielded. So you’ll see a ball get hit deep to center field, with the fielder making an error, meaning it’s a triple. After the word “triple” comes up on the screen, you see your character zoom around the bases from home to third. Very realistic there.

Oh, games end in ties, too. That’s right. Baseball fans know that no baseball game ends in a tie, except if it’s the All-Star Game (that’s a joke that only MLB fans would get). So if both pitchers pitch perfect games for three innings, which happens more often than not, then it’s a nice 0-0 tie, and everyone goes home happy. Or not.

Bowling: ****
You could make the argument that if bowling was the one sport included in this game, and this was simply Wii Bowling, the game would be just as good. Bowling outshines the other sports on this disc in a big way. It is incredibly realistic, and it is one of the most fun new games I’ve played in a long time. You simply swing the remote back and then forward, just like a bowling ball, letting go of the B button when you want to release the ball. You can set up your shot and angle it.

What makes bowling so much better than every other game here is how absolutely realistic it is. You may not notice it, but as you swing the remote, you twist it, ever so slightly, just like a real bowling ball. That little bit of spin that you naturally put on the virtual bowling ball is just like the way people put a natural spin on a real bowling ball. The game records it perfectly, and you’ll see your ball spin. I really appreciate the fact that the game will recognize the spin you put on the “ball”, which makes the bowling experience so much more realistic. For some situations, you may want to put extreme spin on the ball, and you can do that as well. The game really does everything exactly the way it’s supposed to work in bowling. It captures the complete bowling experience, and it’s a whole lot of fun to play. Once you get the hang of it, your scores should be in the 200s, and it becomes even more fun to try to keep up your good play. Competing with another person  in bowling can be really fun as well, which I found surprising. In short, bowling alone makes Wii Sports a good game.

Boxing: ***
Boxing is the only one of the five sports in Wii Sports that requires the use of the nunchuck. It’s also the game that will tire you out the quickest (at least if you’re in bad shape like me). You simply swing the remote and nunchuck like fists in order to punch, and whether you swing them up or down will determine whether you punch high or low. You can even dodge punches and block them as well.

Boxing is very fun to play against another person (the only way I have played it). Two problems with it: first of all, there’s this tutorial before every match that makes you think like you’re boxing, but you’re not. That’s made me waste energy thinking the match already started when it’s just explaining the controls. Second, the controls are not always responsive; you’ll sometimes be “punching” with your remote or nunchuck over and over, and not getting a response. This is very annoying, and I don’t know why it happens.

Training: ***½
The Training mode offers 15 mini-games, three for each sport. These mini-games are in most cases more fun than the actual games themselves. It actually makes baseball enjoyable, for one thing. Golf has you doing things like shooting for targets, which is something that was extremely fun in Tiger Woods PGA Tour games and is pretty good here, too. Bowling has you trying to make very difficult spares or trying to hit pins while getting the ball around walls. These mini-games are a very welcome addition to Wii Sports; the game wouldn’t be the same without them.

Fitness: ***½
Fitness mode has you play three of these mini-games from Training mode, then gives you a fitness “age” based on how well you did. If you stink it up horribly, then you get an age of 80, meaning you’ve got the fitness of an 80-year old. Or, you can get an age as low as 20, meaning you’re really in shape, at least when it comes to playing Wii Sports. Considering it’s more of the mini-games from the great Training mode, there’s nothing to whine about here.

Replayability: ***½
Amazingly enough, a game as simple as Wii Sports can be played over and over again without getting old, especially if you have someone else to compete against. I’ve been motivated to play this game more and more due to the fact that my sister beat me over and over again at bowling, so I played the game in the middle of the night until I perfected my “strike ball”. And now she’s the one who’s trying to improve her game to beat me. The thing is, this game is not like most sports video games where once you learn it, it becomes too easy. In this one, because it requires some of your physical ability, you’ve got to be on your toes every time you play it, and that means continual training to keep your skills from decreasing. Plus you’ve got that “Pro” status that you can gain with 1000 skill points but also lose if you do poorly and lose points once above 1000 points. That’s been a motivating factor for me to keep playing, to stay above “Pro” status or to get there.

Fun Factor!: ***½
It’s amazing how fun it is to play some of these games, despite their flaws, and feel like you’re actually playing the sport. Who would have thought a bowling video game could be fun? Count me as one who thought that would be a joke. Now I can’t get enough of the bowling game in Wii Sports. Yes, these controls are what make this game incredibly fun to play.

OVERALL: ***
This game is a good one, and most likely the perfect way to start your Wii playing experience. Sure, the baseball game is completely flawed, and that hurts the score, as do some flaws in three of the other games (not bowling; that game is nearly perfectly made). But considering how fun this game is, it’s certainly a game that should stay in your Wii playing rotation for a long time, whether you’re a sports fan or not. Trust me, even if you hate sports, Wii Sports can make you like them, especially bowling (as long as you take the time to train and get better at them).

And here I want to make it known that my previous rift with Nintendo is over. They’ve won me over, despite my doubts. They said that they wanted to get all people to enjoy video games; how true it is when my sister plays the Wii more than I do. They said the controller would revolutionize video games; already I can see this occurring (Madden NFL 07 is incredibly better on the Wii than on the Xbox 360, as I own both). Wii Sports makes their points perfectly. Now Nintendo can sit back and say, “Wii were right, you were wrong.” But believe me, I couldn’t be happier about it.