Wii Sports

Like baseball, bowling is realistic and involves the true hand motions of a bowler. Twisting the remote will put spin on the ball, and you can move and turn your character left or right to aim.

PROTIP: If you succesfully dodge a punch, take the opening and deliver a devastating blow.

PROTIP: If you succesfully dodge a punch, take the opening and deliver a devastating blow.

In boxing, the nunchuck attachment acts as the left hand and punches can be thrown by jabbing either hand at the screen. The game also recognizes hooks and uppercuts, and blocking is performed by holding both hands up in front of your face. You can dodge, also, by moving both hands either to the left or right. Boxing, though, is the only game that has rather spotty sensor recognition, often unable to tell the difference between left and right-hand shots.

All the sports can be played either alone or with two or more players, depending on what type of sport it is. In terms of graphics, there's nothing much to treat the eye here. The rumors of GameCube-like visuals are somewhat true, though golf and tennis actually have pleasing environmental effects.

Breaking a Sweat
PROTIP: The slope of the putting green is hard to see, but pay attention or you'll be chasing your ball around.

PROTIP: The slope of the putting green is hard to see, but pay attention or you'll be chasing your ball around.

Aside from the basic games, there is also a training mode (three objective-based events per sport) and Wii Fitness, a Brain Age-esque daily three-event activity that rates your performance. These add a little extra incentive to keep at Wii Sports, because with no career mode to track ongoing progress, this is about all there is. On the flipside, Wii Sports does track your performance level, so gameplay will get more difficult as your experience increases.

The Verdict

Even though Wii Sports is included in the system, we don't want to give it too much leeway because it's free. But, realistically, we can't help but enjoy the fact that we're getting a solid sports experience for nothing. It's definitely more fun in groups and won't have a great deal of longevity, but anyone who doesn't find at least some fun in Wii Sports has a heart of coal. There, I said it.

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