Wiiplay first impressions

[feilong801]

Dug myself out of the mountain of snow in my driveway and finally picked up my pre-ordered copy of Wiiplay.

 

Obviously, I ordered this for the elusive fourth Wii-mote. Interestingly, there seem to be plenty around now that the game is released. If this is intentional, well, I can't really fault smart business!

 

At any rate, I had a good time with the games. Wiiplay is obviously not worth more than the ten bucks it *really* costs, however. For ten bucks, though, you do get some nice stuff, such as:

 

Billiards. The controls work great on this one. Only does 9 ball, but still a neat little game. A fully featured billiards come ought to be made by somebody, since the controls are so good.

 

Find Mii. Oddly addictive little game, and its a gas to see all of your Mii's (especially if you have weird ones like I do, such as Hitler, Anna Nicole Smith, and Saddam Hussein) running around.

 

Laser Hockey. Very fun pong variant, though it plays quite a bit like air hockey. Might be the second best game in the bunch. Very easy to twist and turn the paddle to get bank shots.

 

Shooting Gallery aka Duck Hunt II. An obvious use of the Wiimote to be sure, it is still fun. The Wii should really get some great "on rails" shooting games based on the intuitive controls.

 

The best mini: Tanks

I fun little "Combat" variant. Using the wiimote to aim is intuitive and fun. The levels are laid out as if they are toy tanks in lincoln log fields, which is neat. A blast with two players.

 

The Lame Minis:

 

Fishing. Better in Zelda when it had to do with the story. Otherwise boring.

Pose-Mii. Some will like this, but I can't find myself going back to it.

 

Cow Racing. On one hand, the controls work extremely well, and I definitely want to get Excite Truck soon after trying this, but this mini game doesn't really hold water.

 

Ping Pong. Could have been cool, but you can only rally and never serve. Yawn......

 

-Rob

[Steerforth]

I stupidly ordered my copy off of Toys r Us, and now its backordered and who knows when I'll get it! Oh well.

[a1]

I just bought mine, so I'll see if I agree with what you say there.

[a1]

Okay, here are my impressions. I'll just go through the games in the order they're listed in the manual.

 

Find Mii-Not a big fan myself. It is cool to see the Miis you've made (anything in your system shows up, not just the one you play with), but I didn't have fun with it. The first one's are really easy, find the two that look alike, but it doesn't really change much from that formula. I lost on find the odd Miis out, because I really only saw one Mii that had characteristics different from the others. The other Mii that was the odd Mii out had a clone in the group I was supposed to pick from!

 

Table Tennis- It's not awful, and it is sort of fun to see how many hits you can get, but I see no reason to go back to this when I have Wii Sports Tennis. I mean, all you do is move the controller left and right. How can they have possibly made a tennis game simpler than Wii Sporst Tennis?

 

Pose Mii- This one I like. There are three different poses you put you Mii in, and you rotate it (by turning your wrist) to match the pose on bubbles, and pop them before they land. At first it is very easy, but once you get to where the game asks you to switch poses while you pop bubbles it gets pretty hectic. I'll have to see how it plays on 2-player.

 

Laser Hockey-Not bad, but I imagine I'd have more fun with it 2-player. You rotate your wrist to turn the your paddle, but I can't understand why the back of the paddle basically just slows the ball down. In real air hockey the paddle is the same on both sides, so I don't really get the change. I bet it will be a blast to play with someone else, though.

 

Billiards-Fantastic. I am really impressed by how closely this replicates real pool. Only 9-ball, but it works well enough that I don't mind. You can put spin on the ball and hit with different amounts of power very easily. I'm sure this one will be popular for multiplayer.

 

Fishing-Meh. This one's not bad, but it's not that fun either. It certainly controls well enough, but I can't imagine I'll be playing it too often. All you do is move your pole around in a pond, and pull up when a fish bites.  Maybe it will be better for 2-player.

 

Charge (cow racing)-Pass. I have no reason to play this given that I have Excite Truck, which controls better and has way more depth. I don't like how you jump by pulling the Wii-remote up. Developers need to realize jumping is best left to the A button.

 

Tanks!-Definitely the cream of the crop. I would gladly pay $10 for this game alone. Having a couple others is like a nice bonus. In this you have an overhead view, and you move your tank around with the joystick while aiming with the remote. You can shoot missiles or lay mines for the enemy to run into. This, unlike the other games, is actually difficult. It starts out easy but it shoots right up to very hard at the 5th level. I can't wait to try this one on 2-player.

[Steerforth]

All hail Wiplay! Seriously, I just got this title, and I highly recommend it, as it is VERY FUN!.  Don't buy it for the Wimote, but if you don't need the Wimote sell it on ebay and you will more than recoup your expense buying this game! It is a can't lose deal. Critics have  been too hard on this game, honestly I don't know what they were expecting, or why they take themselves or their work so seriously.

 

"HMMMMM, is this game a 6.8 or a 7.1? Will I look like a fanboy if I give it a good score? Boy I really like it but its not violent enough, plus the graphics are kiddy! Oh, what to do, what to do.....!"

 

If you are a fan of old school games, or arcade style games, you will find plenty to like here.

[feilong801]

Well Steerforth, the sales for Wiiplay imply that people are ignoring the reviews and trying it for themselves.

 

Or they need wii-motes badly (-:

 

-Rob

[ActRaiser1]

they need remotes badly...