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Luke
12 Oct, 2006

Wii Sports Preview

Wii Preview | We look at what you'll be getting with your Wii on launch day.
When Wii Sports was first revealed at E3 2006, everyone thought it was a clever idea, but not extensive enough to be available as a stand alone game. All became clear when Nintendo announced that the game would come free with the Wii console when it launches on the 7th of December. The compilation will consist of five easy to pick up and play games, baseball, tennis, bowling, boxing and golf. Whether you want it or not, come December 7th you're going to be playing Wii Sports so we thought we'd take a look at what you'll be playing.

Wii Sports isn't the type of game that is going to blow you away immediately, the primitive looks of the game take a quick backstep to the gameplay. The first game in the compilation is Wii Golf. Wii Golf lets you appease the Tiger Woods in you (if the EA titles didn't). In the E3 demo you started off on a course originally trying to sink a hole in one. First off you'll need to hold the Wii-mote in a neutral hold to calibrate the sensors. After this small pause you hold the Wii-mote like a golf club whilst the power of the swing is represented by a bar at the bottom of the screen. There are a series of dots in the powerbar and they represent the distance along the course, for example the first dot is about twenty metres from the tee, the second is another 20 etc.. The hole rests squarely between the last dot and the end of the bar. This means you're not having to take a gamble when taking a shot because you're able to visually see where your golf ball will go.

Bowling, one of the newly announced games.

Bowling, one of the newly announced games.
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Putting basically follows the same procedure, instead of the motion of a full swing for the hole you only need a small backwards and forwards movement, which mirrors that of an actual putting motion. Later holes in the game will be a bit more challenging. For example, one of the holes features pretty hilly terrain. When you've got a more complicated hole to aim at you can use the directional pad to adjust the direction of your swing.

The second game in the compilation is Wii baseball. While it probably won't be a mini-game that many Europeans or Australians are going to fully appreciate, Wii Baseball does however, maintain the vision of trying to bring the experience of interactive sports to the small screen. In the demo the Wii-mote doubles as a baseball bat. All that is required of the player is to ready yourself by holding the Wii-mote in a batter-up pose and then swing away as the balls are served up. The speed of the deliveries is varied and if you time your swing well enough then you'll be rewarded with an "out of the park" rating. If you miss the ball completely due to a sneaky slow ball, the game will tell you what you've done wrong.

Tiger Wood's cartoon version?

Tiger Wood's cartoon version?
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Other games to feature on the compilation will include the recently revealed Wii Bowling, Wii Tennis and Wii Boxing. The Mii's that you create on the Wii will be able to be imported into the game, which should make for some entertaining designs. Anyone purchasing a Wii on day one has no choice but to get Wii Sports, the good news is that the seems like it's going to be a lot of fun in short bursts.
Overall:
Wii Sports seems like an ideal pack in game. It utilises the full functions of the Wii and looks to be a lot of fun in multiplayer.

Related Wii Sports Content

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12 Jan, 2008 Fancy a chance at challenging Mark Philippoussis?
Wii Sports Review
07 Dec, 2006 PALGN's verdict on the title everyone is going to own.
Wii firmware updated
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27 Comments
5 years ago
If you compare the Wii's converted Japanese price (in Japan Wii sports isn't packed in) with the converted US price (where it is), you can see its not free.

But knowing how companies like to screw Australian customers, who knows? The Wii could very well have been $400 here regardless.
5 years ago
I probably won't even open Wii Sports....it looks so crap! Obviously there are other games that will use the Wiimote so I might show off a game like Zelda instead. I'll be getting Zelda, Metal Slug Anthology and maybe Red Steel at launch....I probably won't open any of these untill Twilight Princess is finished so I don't see myself ever playing Wii sports!

I don't know if it's a freebie or not but I doubt it....(nothing's free!)...but I would rather the package cost less and not have the game!
5 years ago
ObsoletE wrote
i must be one of the few people who is totally underwhelmed by this title.

tech demo or not, i'd rather see it packed with a Warioware Touched-esque title instead of sports.
No, I am to. But I believe the intent from Nintendo is just to get people up and running with the Wii controller. They need to get people hooked on it so that it generates the excitement. They tell friends and hopefully they buy it too.

If thats the case than its ideal.

If people believe otherwise than its either clever marketing or the typical uninformed enthusiasm people have for getting something for nothing (or potentially both icon_razz.gif).

There is never a so called thing as a "free lunch".
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  Pre-order or buy:
    PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  Out Now
European Release Date:
  Out Now
Publisher:
  Nintendo
Developer:
  Nintendo
Players:
  4

Read more...
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