Game Review: Nintendo's Wii Play - First Impressions
Added: February 15th, 2007 (tagged with: game+review)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Wii Play is the second game from Nintendo that utilizes the user created Miis. Wii Play consists of nine mini-games that you can play solo or in groups. The mini-games are: Shooting Range, Find Mii, Table Tennis, Pose Mii, Laser Hockey, Billiards, Fishing, Charge, and Tanks. When you first start, you are only able to play the first game, Shooting Range. After completing each game, another one in the series opens up.
Note: you must unlock all nine games before you can start to earn medals. So don't try to boost you
Shooting Range
Unlocking Stage: 422 points - Current Best: 464 points - Medal: Gold
Update: 538 points, Gold Medal
In the shooting range, you are presented with five levels of play to rank up the highest score you can. In the levels you must shoot varying targets from Balloons to Targets to Clay Pigeons, Empty Cans, and finally UFOs. In the balloon stage, as well as (I think) one other, ducks fly by in the background. I haven't tried to shoot them yet, too busy shooting the targets, but I think they should give you bonus points or something. As a guy who has spent countless coin in beating the Police Trainer arcade game, Shooting Range was not much of a challenge racking up enough points for a Gold Medal. Fun none-the-less, I know I can beat my current high score, and will be trying until I save all my Miis from the dreaded UFOs. =)
Find Mii
Unlocking Stage: 5 levels
More Updates: 25 levels, Bronze Medal
Find Mii is just as it sounds. You are given an objective, and you have to click on the Miis that meet that objective. I got confused by the objective of the 6th level... oh well, try and try again.
Update: after trying again, I still do not understand Level 6. What does "Find 2 Odd Miis Out" mean? None of them look the same. Argh!
More Updates: Okay, I broke down and did a quick search online. "Find 2 Odd Miis Out" means find the Mii characters who are behaving differently than the group. In Level 6, the Miis are watching a tennis match. The crowd of Miis are (assumedly) following the play of the ball, but two of them are looking in the opposite direction from all the others. Click those "Odd Miis Out" to move on to the next level.
Table Tennis
Unlocking Stage: 2, 3, 42 points - Current Best: 50 points - Medal: Bronze
Update: Perfect 100 points, Gold Medal
The objective of table tennis is to rally as many times as you can (up to 100). The first time through I scored a 2. So, I tried again, 3. Once more, 42, so I'm getting the hang of it, time to move on to the next mini-game. My current high score of 50 is only good enough to earn me a bronze medal.
Update: My tip - after making each rally, return to the center of the table to improve your reaction time for the next shot.
Pose Mii
Unlocking Stage: 262 points
Update: 296 points, Bronze Medal
Update: 619 points, Silver Medal
Pose Mii is actually pretty fun. You are given three different Mii Poses to choose between, and you must rotate the Wii Remote until the pose matches the position of the Mii outline on falling bubbles. As you advance levels, the bubbles rotate as they fall, increase in speed, and bubble of different poses are on screen at the same time, increasing the challenge.
Laser Hockey
Unlocking Stage: 7 points - Current Best: 8 points - Medal: Silver
Update: 9 points, Silver Medal
I LOVE Air Hockey. I am great at it. Laser Hockey was one of the reasons I bought this game, and I was not disappointed. The controls are a little difficult, you have to bounce the "puck" off of walls to speed it up, as hitting it fast doesn't do anything, but the game is fun. The computer's skill level is not too difficult, but you will score more points against yourself than the computer will, so it evens that out. I always get greedy by the end of the game and score two or three own goals.
Billiards
Unlocking Stage: 48 points - Current Best: 48 points - Medal: Silver
Update: 51 points, Gold Medal
Billiards is the other reason I bought this game. I understand the principals to billiards, I'm just not that good at it. Luckily, in video game form, principals are all you really need to understand. The only difficultly I am having with the game is that I keep sinking the cue ball after making a shot. Also, I don't think you can tilt your cue stick, which makes some shots impossible. I need to look into making jump shots so I can make some of my shots without a foul...
Fishing
Unlocking Stage: 1000 points
Update: 1490 points, Bronze Medal
Update: 1760 points, Silver Medal
Of all the games, fishing seemed the most childish to me. It's just the graphics, it all looks like it was drawn with a crayon. And I'm still confused to why when I caught a little fish a couple of times I got penalized, but once it was the bonus fish... I guess I will have to play more to figure it out.
Charge!
Unlocking Stage: 259 points
Update: 292 points, Silver Medal
In Charge! you are a bull rider that needs to knock down scarecrows for points. Most are stationary, but there is the occasional jumping scarecrow that is worth more points. Along the track there are hurdles in your way that you have to get your bull to jump over. Not a bad mini-game, but I think I would get bored quickly after getting a gold medal.
Tanks!
Unlocking Stage: 9 tanks
Update: 17 tanks, Bronze Medal
Update: 39 tanks, Silver Medal
Tanks! looks like a pretty fun little mini-game. The objective is to destroy all enemy tanks on a board by either firing bullets or dropping land mines. Some tanks are stationary, some move, and some fire really fast. There might be more of a variety of tanks, but I have not encountered them yet.
Update: Yep, there are more tanks. Not sure what they all do yet, but some drop mines, some fire rapidly, some (it looks like) play ricochet shots, etc...
Bonus: Click on Mii
Not technically a mini-game, but on the main menu screen, you can click on your Mii character to elicit different responses:
- Left Leg: Your Mii will almost fall over
- Right Leg: Your Mii will give you a pose
- Left Arm: Your Mii will wave to you
- Right Arm: Your Mii will give you a "Thumbs Up" pose
- Body: Your Mii will give you a stunned look
- Head: Your Mii will shake their head
More Updates: After you achieve a medal in each of the mini-games, Wii Play acknowledges your accomplishments. After figuring out Level 6 of "Find Mii," I earned a bronze medal and got a congratulations banner upon returning to the main screen letting me know I have reached Bronze Level in all games. Find Mii is my only Bronze right now, so another go at it and I should move up to Silver Level =)
Updates made: February 16th, 2007
More Updates made: February 20th, 2007
