Wii Sports Review

Released with the Nintendo Wii, Wii Sports has become the premiere game. Not only has Wii Sports brought many non-gamers into buying a Wii because of how addictive it is, but it's also become the main game for Wii owners. It's a perfect example of what is wrong with the Nintendo Wii.

Developed by Nintendo, Wii Sports includes five different sports to play: tennis, bowling, baseball, gold and boxing. Each sport consists a single player mode, multiplayer and training mode. Within each mode, there are usually some choices to liven up the game a bit more.

All of the sports make use of the motion controls of the Wii remote. The charm of the game is using the Wii remote in the same fashion as the sports of equipment of that particular sport. While the movement of the remote doesn't have to be in the same fashion, a slight flick of the wrist will do, but the fun comes with making the full motion of swing a tennis racket or pitching a baseball.

To keep playing, there is a system in place to keep stats on how well you're doing. The more skill points you get the better rank you'll receive. Since there's so much motion involved, Nintendo also added a fitness program to the game, kind of. Using the Fitness Test, you can see what your Fitness Age is with the younger the age being better. Granted, you will be burning more calories thanks to the movement, but this game will not replace any actual physical activity.

For a long time, packaged games were a standard when you bought a system. In the case of Nintendo, these packaged games were great advertisers for the system. Tetris for the Gameboy, Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt for the NES, and Super Mario World for the SNES all helped their respective systems sell even more. Wii Sports continues the tradition but the fact is, the game is barely a game. While fun, Wii Sports is more of tech demo, but it's still addicting.

- O.G.