This is what video games should be: fun for everyone. Wii Sports offers five distinct sports experiences, each using the Wii Remote controller to provide a natural, intuitive and realistic feel. To play a Wii Sports game, all you need to do is pick up a controller and get ready for the pitch, serve or that right hook. If you've played any of these sports before, you're ready for fun!
Features
Play Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing in the comfort of one's living room. No ball boys scurrying about, no oil from the alleys to get players dirty and no rain to keep anyone from a day at the court, park or course. Use the Wii Remote controller to mimic the actions of swinging a racket, bat or club, roll a ball down an alley or bring the left jab. Players can use their own Mii caricatures in the game and play them against their friends' Miis for a more personalized experience. As players improve, their Miis' skill levels will increase, so that they can see exactly how much better they've become. People of all skill levels can pick up and play any of the games in the unprecedented Wii Sports package, making this truly a title for everyone!
When Nintendo said that one of its goals with Wii was to create an environment in which smaller, simpler games were nurtured, we had no idea that it was creating the environment for itself. But with Nintendo Sports Tennis, a title whose graphics border on the side of shareware demo and far away from the realm of next generation, it has done just that. This is exactly the type of simple tennis game that is sure to appeal to the mainstream crowd and just as likely to bore the hardcore one. We think, though, that whether you're the type who ultimately sticks with the game or alternatively tries it and moves on, you're sure to have fun while your attention is held.
Nintendo Sports Tennis is designed, according to Nintendo, to show off how the Wii-mote might be used in certain situations. The game doesn't use the nunchuck attachment at all. Neither does it use any buttons on the Wii-mote. Rather, all control operations are handled by the Wii-mote's accelerometer. And that's it.
How's that possible? Well, for starters, in Nintendo Sports Tennis, you don't actually control the generic tennis players that run around the courts. All on-court movement is handled automatically by the game. You merely control the swing of your athlete's tennis racket. Not a lot to think about, we know, but strangely it's somehow enough. This is because Nintendo and co-developer Intelligent Systems have created some compelling control mechanics that link the Wii-remote with various racket swings in the game of tennis.
This is a game best played with two or more players and that being true that's exactly how it was demoed to us. In our demos, two of us played doubles - we each controlled one person on a team and the other was handled by through artificial intelligence. The screen splits down the middle and you always see the behind-the-back view of your team. All you need do is hit the ball when it comes your way. But within those parameters there's a surprising amount of options and freedom, all made possible, of course, with the flexibility of the Wii-remote. Gesture a forehand and your character will forehand. Gesture a backhand and they'll backhand instead. You can lob the ball, add spin, or send powerful shots over the net, and it's all done with the motion of the controller.
One interesting thing we learned while playing is that you can choose to either do wide, arching movements that genuinely simulate the real game of tennis, or, alternatively, you can choose simple flicks of the wrist to do the same thing. So, if you want to go out (like the actors in Nintendo's initial controller teaser video), you have that option. But if not, you can go small, too. The game recognizes and translates either movement to the court on the fly.
The characters in the game are fairly basic. Plain, even. And the animation needs work. At times, it was difficult for us to tell if we were delivering a forehanded or backhanded shot because of the primitive graphics, which seemed to negate our attempts at trying different moves with the controller. On the other hand, we found ourselves intrigued by the fact that you can direct the ball on-screen simply by arching your shots in one direction - a highly intuitive mechanic that cannot easily be duplicated by analog stick configurations.
It's fun. Not brilliant. Nintendo Sports Tennis lacks depth on every level and what's there will, we think, eventually wear thin, but that noted we also believe that a game like this will perfectly capture the non-gamers the Big N is chasing nowadays. If a game like this were to ship with Wii as a demo, it'd make a ton of sense.
NOTE: During this hands-on session, it was unknown that Nintendo Sports Tennis would be part of the Wii Sports compilation game. Included sports are Tennis, Golf, and Baseball, all with a stylized look that's designed after 8-bit game design but with full 3D technology.