E308: Wii Fanboy hands-on with Wii Sports Resort

Gallery: Wii Sports Resort
Upon booting up Wii Sports Resort, the nice lady from Nintendo that was demoing the title for us suggested we start with the frisbee-tossing minigame, Disc Dog, because it was a good way to experience the changes brought to the console scheme by MotionPlus. She was right.
The level of detection by MotionPlus is incredibly impressive. The game recognized every which way we flung the Wiimote, even when we took it for a complete 360 degree spin around our body, which turned out to be a very freaky animation in-game (think head-spinning in The Exorcist, only replace the head with floating Mii hands). So score one for Nintendo here.
But, what about Disc Dog? It's pretty much what you would expect. You toss a frisbee and await your little pup as it makes a hurried dash for the floating plastic disc. The closer you get it to the target (a large arrow that changes with each toss), the more points you get. There are three distinct areas that encompass the target arrow, with each being identified by a different color, rewarding the player with different point totals per toss for landing within these zones.
Next, we moved on to Swordplay, which we're assuming will replace the original Wii Sports Boxing game. This was actually fun. No, not the cutting wood and pencils part, but the actual battling a live opponent aspect. Here, MotionPlus shined. Guarding and slashing could be accomplished in a variety of crazy ways. Swinging the Wiimote low, as if we were blind and holding a cane to navigate a busy street, allowed us to disregard high blocks and lay into our opponent's knees. Slamming the Wiimote forward from a high position allowed us to clock the enemy Mii right in the noggin. There was a lot of depth here and no two fights were the same. Out of the three available minigames, this was by far the strongest.Finally, it was on to the Wave Race-like minigame, Power Cruising. Here, our lack of experience with MotionPlus meant we would constantly oversteer and crash into walls. The slalom-like approach of this minigame didn't really come off that fun, although the game very much felt like a Wave Race. The only problem is the gameplay wasn't reminiscent or even a clone of that title. We feel that with some other racers to go up against, Power Drifting would really have been a lot more fun.
We're anxious to see what else Nintendo has up their sleeve for this title









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dylan F @ Jul 17th 2008 9:41AM
Sounds fun now. I can honstly say I may buy this game other than for the MotionPlus
racecar @ Jul 17th 2008 9:44AM
Psst. Wrong gallery.
Ryan P. @ Jul 17th 2008 10:19AM
And we have to wait until spring for this ???
This is the sort of thing I imagined when I first saw the trailer for the Wii-remote. Remember the one that didn't even show any gameplay? When was that ? Fall of 05? spring of 06? Anyway so it will be at least THREE years since that tease that we actually get the the trippy fully immersive 1:1 experience. I really think this is what the remote was supposed to be in the first place.
But at least it's still coming with this console. I was worried they would have to introduce this with the next console.
Christopher Jones @ Jul 17th 2008 10:23AM
I just hope this turns out more like Wii Sports than Wii Play. Worst case scenario, you do get the motion plus add-on at least.
Onomah @ Jul 17th 2008 11:57AM
It wont be like wii play. You could tell by looking at it that wii play was a collection of semi decent minigames. This on the other hand has a look of quality about it. It's the direct sequel to Wii Sports, they won't slouch.
BlackFreefall @ Jul 17th 2008 10:39AM
Wario confirmed for Wii SPorts Resort! (ahha)
I'm really excited about the sword fighting gameplay. If Nintendo would have implemented this when the Wii first came out, maybe Red Steel would have been a different game.
nastysquar3d @ Jul 17th 2008 10:52AM
It's a novel idea to think it might have been a different game... but it was developed by Ubisoft.
I'm pretty sure they'd manage to screw it up somehow.
sn1per @ Jul 17th 2008 10:45AM
Sword fighting seems fun, but if they want to charge $50 for it, the thing better come with *two* Motion Plus dongles, AND have online multiplayer.
Richard @ Jul 17th 2008 11:06AM
Sorry, it still sounds dull to me and certainly not worth 50 bucks.
Shaq-Fu @ Jul 17th 2008 11:11AM
hmmmmmm. $50 does seem to much for a $30 game and a $10-$15 accessory. But, they got away with Wii Play being $50, so why change now? Its not like if you bought it and an extra Wii Motion +, you'd never play the game when you're friends and family come over. Swordplay will definitely become my new obsession, I thought something like Wave-Race would be multiplayer, and I never understood why Nintendo won't let us transfer our Nintendogs over to AC or for Disc dog.
pjsingh @ Jul 17th 2008 11:12AM
How would you attach a nunchuk if the wii mothion plus thingie was in it's slot? (maybe it is a dumb question, but i still want to know)
Shaq-Fu @ Jul 17th 2008 11:31AM
Theres a port at the end of the motion + that the chuk and classic can plug into
David Hinkle @ Jul 17th 2008 11:19AM
Sorry about the gallery mixup, I've fixed the post. Understand, it was kind of late when I was doing this last night. :)
Mr Khan @ Jul 17th 2008 11:47AM
I figured it would be more worthwhile than the hate train was making it out to be. The sum of previous opinions about the game can be expressed as "wtf, why isn't this kid icarus?"
I figured sword fighting would be fun, closest thing to the ever-desired Star Wars game thus far, and Nintendo seems dedicated to making the Wave Race game particularly deep
Lijik @ Jul 17th 2008 12:37PM
Great impressions, got me a bit more excited for this game beyond "Kazumi Totaka is probably doing the music".
Mr Khan @ Jul 17th 2008 1:23PM
Did anyone ever find the Totaka song in Wii Sports?
Lijik @ Jul 17th 2008 1:29PM
Not that I'm aware of yet.
Shaq-Fu @ Jul 17th 2008 2:58PM
No, nobody has found it yet.
I heard you have to reach Pro level in all 5 sports to unlock it. Its only a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt
PunchyMcJunk @ Jul 17th 2008 1:09PM
If this "Motion Plus" accessory can eliminate the errant lob-wedge shots in Tiger Woods, or prevent me from driving a 45% power shot directly into the water when I'm on a par 5 18th (FTW!), I will gladly buy the add-on.
I nearly broke something last night as that game defied all logic and sent shots flying everywhere before I had even completed my backswing.
sp2vwj @ Jul 18th 2008 5:15AM
Warning, the following rantings are just that rants and ravings from a fellow fanboy.
OK, let me be Mel Gibson's character "Jerry Fletcher" [is a man who sees conspiracies everywhere] in "Conspiracy Theory" [1997] for a few moments to pose these ideas to you. Let's assume that the games in Wii sports, is like what Miyamoto is to the Wii, very casually announcing the imminent up & coming games for the wii in the most understated way possible. If we notice that the original wii sports had either a 1st and/or 3rd party manifestation in games of all the games in it, we can assume that resorts would be like it's predecessor. Now that I've set up my basic train of thought somewhat, let's take a dive into wii sports resort then shall we. From the three games in resort, I can only see those possibilities, for the dog getting the thrown disc game, the only thing I can come up with is duck hunt [1], for the sword fighting game, maybe a improved red steel sequel [2] and finally for the wave racing game, well come on only 1 game should come to mind, wave race [2]. There you go, that my theory on why those games we included in the wii sports resort game. A final note, when has Kendo [Japanese sword fighting] ever been a resort option, usually you go to a resort to get away from Kendo, haha.
P.S. Please forgive any typos and such, it was very late here at the time I was theorizing this down.
Notes:
[1] = tools needed: Wii zapper w/ Wii remote+ nun chucks & motion plus, Wii speak, Wii balance board.
[2] = tools needed: Wii remote, nun chucks, & motion plus, Wii speak, Wii balance board.
[3] = tools needed: Wii remote, nun chucks, & motion plus, Wii speak, Wii balance board.
wiilover @ Sep 14th 2008 11:33AM
red steel 2! motorbike racing games n baseball games! woo!
wiilover @ Sep 14th 2008 11:39AM
i hope motion plus leads to an update for wii sports( dlc) dat wud b so raw