Nintendo Wii Sports was released back in November 2006. It was a great way of getting people together and being more active whilst playing computer games. It also helped develop a skill in the particular sport by using the Wii remote to mimic the actions needed for tennis, bowling, baseball, golf and boxing, July 11th 2014 saw the release of Nintendo Wii Sports Club – available for the Wii U as a hard copy. I had my whole family playing and had some help from my husband as to what he thought the pros and cons were.
Pros:
*Uses Wii Motion Plus – which has slightly improved the game play, to make it more like the sport itself.
*Doesn’t require nunchuck anymore as you have the option to play one-handed (although you can still play with both hands if you have a nunchuck).
*High Definition output (sharper, more detailed image)
* Reignites the children’s interest to get active whilst playing computer games, and get a feel for the different sports.
* Tennis now allows players to add top spin
* Miiverse – a community that lets you communicate with other players from around the world. Nintendo ID for joining a club for playing online. This is great if you need more people to play with, or to find people on the same sort of skill level as yourself. Or if you want to play with friends who live in different houses. You can see where you rank and send messages to others.
* You can get a Day Pass which allows you to play for a 24 hour period – perfect if you just want to organise one night/day with friends to get together to play.
* You can buy a single sport pass if you only fancy playing one sport.
*The game makes clever use of the Gamepad for Golf and Baseball:
– Golf the gamepad works quite cleverly as a display to show your ball on the ground, meaning you can take aim with your virtual “golf club”- this means there’s more skill involved.
– Baseball, the gamepad is used for pitching and some fielding.
* Suitably for a wide range of ages – with it being clear and simple how to use (even for our young children).
*There are Achievements (stamp book to track how well you are doing).
*The game has the promise of additional sports in the future.
Cons
*It feels too much like the original game.
*Even though it’s in HD the graphics are so basic the HD upgrade over the Wii original isn’t really appreciated.
*Wii Motion Plus doesn’t really seem to make it much more accurate – had to keep re-calibrating during golf, and during baseball after a few swings the bat was pointing in the wrong place, plus if your existing Wii-motes are from the original Wii you may not have WiiMotion Plus.
*For golf the gamepad is placed on the floor, not great with kids that want to jump about while they are playing.
* I can’t help think that the fun in the Wii genre of consoles is that you are playing it with your friends and family and that you can see them making fools of themselves as they wiggle about – so don’t see the attraction of playing the game online.
*In the original people figured out that a random flick of the wrist had the same or better results than trying to play properly, this still seems to be the case, you can try really hard as if you were playing the actual sport and have dire results, or just flick your wrist and get a homerun, which makes the online play hard to be taken seriously – as there are ranks and points making you feel that some kid is just sitting on a sofa somewhere playing against you working up a sweat jumping all over the place.
*Doesn’t feel like good value, as the original was bundled in with the original Wii for free, and it was a nice fun freebie, and as it was a launch title, the “basic” look and feel was ok, now this is Nintendo’s “Next Gen” console that has been out for over a year and a half, and costs £34.99, it doesn’t feel such good value, they could have included all of Wii Sports Resort to increase the value.
Summary:
There are some classic games that people campaign for a HD remake (Metal Gear Solid 1, Final Fantasy VII etc…), this just feels like a way of getting people who enjoyed the original to pay for the same game again. The online “Club” functionality gives a new dimension to have a bit of fun to play with friends and (the whole) family, or meet new people online who enjoy it too. There’s new improvement on the controls and it is in HD. As a parent I like how it is an old favourite that now comes in the latest console version – as my family do like to have the “latest” things.
Nintendo sent us a copy of Nintendo Wii Sports Club on the Wii U on a loan period for purposes of this review. All opinions are our own. We have received no financial compensation for this post.