Wii Play, Better Than Epinions Rates It!

I can't believe all the negative reviews that this game has recieved. Taking the game for what it is, basically a free game that comes with a controller (the bulk of the cost of this game), it's well worth it. Many of these games (Tanks!, Laser Hockey, Fishing) can be played over and over with your friends...and you'll never get sick of them. I'm 28, and personally the Tanks! game has kept me entertained for hours, day after day (i'm a 28 year old engineer working in the automotive safety industry).

Anyhow, on to the review!

Wii Play for the Nintendo Wii should be the only option for people to get an additional controller for their Wii (this game comes with an additional controller). This is a great little game that is simple for anyone to pick up and play in a matter of minutes. Wii Play is comprised of 9 games...let's talk about them, shall wii?

Shooting Range

Every time I play this, it reminds me of Duck Hunt...only better. In this game, you point the Wii controller at the screen as use it as if it was a target gun. Targets pop up in different patterns on the screen and you have to shoot them quickly before they dissapear, or your friend you're playing against shoots them first! Some of the targets will have your Mii (your character you use to play games on the Wii system) on them, and you lose points of you shoot those. Others will have your opponents Mii on them, and you get bonus points for hitting them. You are awarded for shooting targets in a row without missing. Ducks, from Duck Hunt, fly across the screen at random times to give you a chance for bonus scoring. There are some other twists and turns (including a visit from alien ships) along the way. Score high to get the Platinum medal (medals explained below).

Find Mii

This is a "Where's Waldo" type game, crossed with your basic matching game. A goal will pop up on the screen like, "Find two matching Mii's", and then you're off to click on the two Mii's on the screen that match. It starts off easy, with only 4 Mii's on screen at a time...but quickly gets harder and harder. More Mii's are added, they'll ask you to find 3 Mii's that are alike, they'll start walking around...it gets tough. Some screens are dark, and you have to point your controller at the screen, as if it were a flashlight, in order to find the matching Mii's. Other levels are water levels, where the Mii's are swimming, making it even harder to pick out the correct ones. Sometimes they'll be on escalators, other times watching a NASCAR race from the bleachers. Sometimes you'll have to pick out the fastest Mii as they are all walking down the street. It's a fun/easy game anyone can play. I've made it up to level 54, can you do better?

Table Tennis

This is your basic game of ping pong, played with Wii controllers. In single player mode, the goal is to rally 100 times in a row without missing (challenging but not too tough). Or, you can play against your friend and battle it out to 11 points. A funny part of this game is seeing who is in the crowd, watching you play (crowd is made up of your Mii's and other Mii's that may have mingled to your Wii system).

Pose Mii

In this game, your Mii is floating on the screen, and you move him or her around to fit different poses that are locked inside bubbles. Once you fit your Mii into the correct pose, the bubble breaks. The goal is to pop all the bubbles before they hit the bottom. The game starts out easy, with 1 type of pose for you to fit your Mii into. As the game goes on, not only do you have to move your Mii around and fit it into the bubbles, but you have to also switch poses by pressing the A or B buttons (3 poses total). The bubbles start popping up faster and faster, and the poses start flipping upside down and sideways...making it more challenging. Let 3 bubbles hit the bottom, and your game is over. There are magic bubbles that will stop all other bubbles from falling, once you pop them. These magic bubbles are essential to take advantage of when playing single player or multiplayer.

Laser Hockey

A basic game of Air Hockey, played on your Wii system...with some cool sounds and graphics. You can play against the computer...trying to score as many goals as you can in 2 minutes, or play a friend where the first person to score 8 goals, wins. This game is surprisingly realistic in the motion of the puck as you hit it. The longer it takes, and more hits with your paddles between goals, the faster the puck gets going. Sometimes simple games like this can keep you and a few friends entertained for hours. Seriously!

Fishing

I really like this one, although it can be frustrating at times. You take hold of a virtual fishing pole, and move it around with your Wii controller...trying to place it in front of the mouths of brightly colored fish. After a couple nibbles, the fish bite your hook, and you have to quickly yank your controller back to get the fish and score points. A "bonus" fish appears at the top of the screen, to note that if you catch that particular fish you will score double. The tiny small fry fish will bite your line fmor time to time, but you do not want to catch this one...as it will take 50 points away from you! Go for the King of the Pond fish to score big.

Billiards

They did a good job putting the physics of pool into this Wii Play game, except for striking the cue ball. Hitting the cue ball requires you to pull the Wii controller back, and then pushing it forward. The problem is, it is very hard to gauge how hard you will be hitting the cue ball. Other times, it just doesn't seem to work at all. It's just a very difficult thing to get used to. Other than that, it's your basic game of 9 ball, and you score points based on the number of the ball you pocket. The spin you can put on the cue ball, and the way the balls bounce off of the rails is very realistic. I've been playing pool since I was a freshman in high-school (have my own cue stick that I bring to pool halls with me, read books, watched videos, the whole 9 yards) and I was impressed with the attention to detail that went into this game (except for the striking the ball part).

Charge!

This is a weird/cool game where you race along a dirt track, riding a cow. You hold the Wii controller sideways, and tilt it forwards to go faster, and back to slow down. There are scarecrows along the track that you are supposed to hit to get points. There are also hurdles that you have to jump over, by lifting the Wii controller up in a quick motion. The faster you complete the track, the more bonus points you get for leftover time. When you play a friend, you can bump into them and knock them off track...and take the lead. Knocking over scarecrows in a row will net you some bonus points.

Tanks!

This is by far my favorite game in Wii Play. You play this game as a miniature tank, and move around the screen with your nunchuck (must have a nunchuck to play), and aim and shoot with your Wii controller. The goal is to blow up all the enemy tanks on the screen. Like the others, this game starts off easy, blowing up immobile tanks that barely shoot at you...but gets very difficult. First off, you can only shoot 5 bullets at a time...and your bullets will bounce off 1 wall before they themselves blow up (unless you hit something before your bullet hits a wall, of course). The enemy tanks get smarter, faster, and have different abilities. The first wave of tanks only shoot 1 bullet at you at a time, travel slow, and aren't very smart. Later, green tanks will shoot rockets at you...and then shoot bouncing rockets that bounce up to 3 times off walls before blowing up...giving them a big advantage in strategy and angles. Pink tanks will come at you faster, and shoot multiple bullets at you. It's a really addicting game, that's quite a challenge. I've made it up to level 19, but haven't made it to the final level 20 yet. I believe there are an additional 80 levels that are unlocked once you pass level 20...but I cannot comment on those as I haven't made it that far yet! (one day I will)


MEDALS

If you've played Wii Sports, the medals work just like the ones in that game. If you score high enough, you get a Bronze medal (in 1 player mode only). Score higher, get a silver medal. Do really good, maybe you'll earn gold. Play the game perfectly (or close to perfect), and you'll get the best medal possible, platinum. I've only gotten platinum in the Shooting Gallery. Other games i've played over and over and haven't been able to get better than silver. It's fun to play these games over and over to try to beat your own personal best scores.

All in all, this is basically a free game that you get with an additional Wii controller...and a pretty fun one at that. All ages will have fun playing Wii Play.