Posted

Jul 26th 2009

Mood

I’ve been waiting for this game for quite some time and I finally got a hold of it. Although if you want to get it too, your best bet is to go to GameStop because both Target and Wal-Mart don’t have it yet for whatever reason. This is gonna be a LONG review too, since I try to go into detail about each way the Motion Plus works and what I experienced and there’s A LOT of content in this game. So skim through to find the stuff you want if you don’t want to read the whole thing.

Wii Sports Resort comes with the Motion Plus inside a special jacket. But if you’re like me and think those WiiMote jackets are cumbersome and stupid, you can take the Motion Plus out of it and use it normally. It clips on easily and there’s a little switch in the back to lock it into place just for safe keeping. What I haven’t seen anyone talk about yet is the Nunchuck/Classic Controller port on the Motion Plus. It’s got a special covering for the port, which can be uncovered for clipping said peripherals into it. However it’s permanently attached to the Motion Plus via a small bit of string. So if you’re like me and have the wrist strap on the WiiMote, flailing your arms around with Motion Plus bonks that attached cover into your hand as well as the WiiMote strap. I think I might just cut it off because it doesn’t really serve any purpose except to make the Motion Plus look “cleaner” without a huge hole on the bottom.

Now on to the game!

You’re given a 3 minute video of how to attach/detach and lock/unlock the Motion Plus accessory which you can’t skip past. After that, a Mii will skydive down to the WaHu island. The randomly selected character from the Mii Plaza was Jackie Chan, so that was kinda cool. Lol. You control your character as he/she/it falls by simply moving the remote any way you want. Tilting forward makes your character go into a head dive, and easing back makes them slow down.


The first thing I want to say is how wonderfully accurate it is. I had my doubts about Motion Plus and figured that even though it would replicate the motion accurately it would have some sort of delay or something... but that’s not the case. The character moves exactly on screen as you move the controller. It’s amazingly precise. The game tells you that if the controller gets out of alignment you can simply pause the game, set it down, and let it recalibrate on it’s own. However, aside from recalibrating occasionally before a game began, I’ve never had to do this. The game even includes the option to use the infrared camera to ensure more accurate motion. You can disable this, but honestly I don’t know why you’d want to.

After the brief skydiving tutorial you’re allowed to select any of the 12 games available from the menu. And of course the very first game I tried was sword fighting. It’s awesome, but also really challenging.

You hold the controller in both hands like you’re gripping the hilt of a sword. Cupping your finger over the B button puts you into a defensive position. The remote follows your every move, so you fight by... well... swinging your sword. It’s pretty accurate, but I ran into a couple problems. This might sound weird, but I kinda miss waggling. I’m so conditioned to using the WiiMote by simply waggling or shaking it crazily to get it to pick up movement, that this kinda confused me at first. You really do have to swing your arms like you’re fighting a real opponent. This is not for the faint of heart, cuz you’re gonna get worked up during this. How you swing your arms is very precise and I found myself having problems because I wasn’t aiming low enough or hitting without enough power. That’s right, the Motion Plus detects how much POWER you use in your swings. So if you want to really hit hard, you gotta hit HARD.

Unlike the original Wii Sports, this game has many different challenges and modes to keep you occupied. The one on one sword fighting is fun for a bit, but it gets boring kinda quickly if you’re playing by yourself. Luckily they added a full fledge fighting game. Your Mii auto-walks from one destination to another and on the way you have to dispatch all of your opponents using your sword. You have a health meter (3 zelda like hearts), and likewise so do they. Most grunts are only 1 heart, but as you progress characters get harder and harder as they use body armor. There are 10 different stages to choose from, and I worked up quite a sweat from just the FIRST round. I can totally see how sword play would work in future games and it’s truly inspiring!

Most of the other games I only glanced at to see how the controls work. A lot of the times I found that while the controls were excellent, it was myself that was holding the game back. I’m not a great frisbee player, nor a great golfer, or even a great basketball player. Having some sort of experience playing those games really does help with motion plus.

Archery was really interesting too. You hold the WiiMote straight up and down like it’s your bow, and then you pull back the NunChuck to pull back your arrow. Releasing the Z button lets go of the string and sends your arrow flying. When you pull back, the camera zooms in a bit and blurs out everything except a large circle showing where you are aiming. The longer you hold the string back, the harder it is to shoot as you become slightly unsteady (just like in real archery). You have to take into account wind speed and direction too, and out of all of the events this one feels the most true-to-life. Again, there are multiple difficulties and challenges to try out so as you get better the game gets harder.


Paddle Boating is the hardest I’ve played so far. And it’s hard not because of the controls, but because they’re so accurate to real life. If you paddle too hard on one side, your boat moves in the opposite direction. So you need to constantly alternate between your left and right side, just like the real thing. This, along with the swordplay, will work up the most sweat playing.

Wakeboarding is pretty boring. You simply tilt the controller left and right and flick it up when your character bounces into the air from the wave. I honestly don’t know why this needed Motion Plus as it seems like it could’ve been done just as fine without.

Cycling is odd. You alternate “peddling” the Nunchuck and WiiMote to move. Tilting both either left or right will lean you in those directions. It’s a little confusing to get use to, but once you “get it” it works quite well. The only problem I had with it was that the game frequently misread my motions and thought I was exerting a lot of effort, which in turn drained my on screen stamina. That, coupled with the other racers, wind trying to blow me off the course, and other small details makes this game not as much fun as it could’ve been. Rather than racing I would like to simply try “cycling” over the island free from any sort of restraint.

And speaking of that last bit, the airplane simulation is my absolute favorite game of them all. You hold the WiiMote in your hand like you would hold a paper airplane. By simply moving your hand slightly, the plane moves in response. It’s just as accurate as the skydiving simulation and it’s kinda peaceful too. You’re given 5 minutes to just fly anywhere you want around the islands to your hearts content. You can fly through archways, through the streets, around waterfalls... it’s just so liberating and relaxing. Of course they added stuff for you to do. You can pop balloons, or find “tourist information.” By collecting more information about the island, more features are unlocked. Gotta collect ‘em all! There’s also a dogfighting mode which promises to be as much fun as it looks, although I haven’t tried it yet because it’s 2 player.

Golf is back, as is Bowling. They both are pretty much the same as on the original Wii Sports but with added controls. There are also new golf courses available, as well as the old ones just for the heck of it. They didn’t need to include those, but it was a nice touch really. Table tennis replaces actual tennis and it’s pretty ok too. I dunno, they just aren’t as much fun as the other games, but they’re also nice that they’re included. It helps round out the experience a bit more and shows how Motion Plus enhances these games we’ve already come to love.

Overall I am really enjoying this game. Everything is explained in a nice simple crisp and clear manner so there’s never any confusion about how to play or use the controls. The graphics are, well... Wii Sports, so there’s not much improvement there. Honestly it’s more of a “style” than anything else, so I can’t fault the game for the simplistic looking graphics. It does the job and does it well. The Motion Plus works fantastically and I haven’t had any other problems with it. I know I missed a couple of the events or whatever, so if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask and I’ll elaborate on anything I missed. I know this was kinda a long read as it is, but hey! I like giving you all detailed information! Lol

GET THIS GAME!