| paleface [sys=WII; cat=Action_Variety; reg=NA] |
| | | Like Wii Sports, Wii Play offers up a small selection of mini-games with intentionally crappy graphics, all using some form of motion control. The idea appears to be to appeal to an extremely casual gaming crowd by offering them games, or even non-games, requiring the attention span of a gnat, and offering no pretense of attractive graphics so as, perhaps, not to overwhelm the uninitiated viewer.
I wouldn't mind the graphics much if the games were cool, but they mostly aren't; let's remember they all use "motion" control, and that about explains how things will go. Unintuitive, inaccurate, and distinctly non-ergonomic (my shoulder was killing me for two days after a half-hour session here; my rotator cuff or whatever may have seen better days, but sheesh, I can do all right at the gym without feeling this kind of pain afterwards, not to mention for 48 hours afterwards) control does not, in my book, make for a very enjoyable experience.
Let's take the ping-pong game. Here, you control your paddle by pointing on the screen to where you want it to go. Producing a "swing" in this way doesn't really feel like you're making the right kind of action, since all you're doing is pivoting the pointer slightly to point closer to the net. There's no force feedback (not even inert feedback of pushing a button down), and no clear guide, so have fun just kind of waving your arm up and down, hoping the paddle will sort of making a swinging motion.
Other games include some horrid kind of animal racing (tilt and elevate controller to turn and jump), a top-down toy tank game (d-pad to move, point to aim--argh), and a revision of the old NES Duck Hunt, only without the dog who made the original so amusing, and with lots of pointing.
I'm not even sure you can play these single-player; it definitely feels like it wanted to be a party game sort of thing. But we felt absolutely no inclination to revisit any of the games more than once. |
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| | | | In defense of my own battered shoulder, I feel compelled to add that my gymnastics teacher friend also complained of her shoulder hurting her after a Wii Play session, and she is both younger than me and in fantastically awesome shape. So there. |
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