A solid entry for cricket games on the wii!
Controls: The basic controls are quite simple to learn. After the flip of the coin you bat or bowl. Batting is in my opinion the easier of the two skills. The harder you swing the wiimote the harder the shot in the game, quite simple. You can also use the A and B buttons to play defensive shots and lofts respectively. Batting is usually a case of moving your player slightly, picking a point where there is a gap in the fielding and hitting it straight down. The batting controls and mechanics are easy to learn and very accessible to all. The real tricks are in the bowling. It can be hard at first as the bar at the bottom is slightly confusing. You swing the wiimote to try and bowl the ball at the optimum time but the bar doesn't really indicate when to swing. Its far easier to get into a bowling rhythm than try and play using the bar solely. You can spin the ball but it can be difficult to do it depending on how you use the wiimote to bowl, doing an underarm bowl being the easiest way to accomplish spin. Overall there is very little wrong with the controls. i am pleased they didn't try and incorporate wii motion plus as it's relatively new and it may of made the whole control scheme a bit glitchy.
Single player and Multiplayer games: The single player is what you would expect by the title. As well as the ability to play the ashes game mode you can also play exhibition matches using the other cricketing nations including south africa and the west indies to name a few. You can play on the same system with up to four players which is a nice feature. The "village" difficulty level is far to easy even for a beginner. The bowlers bowl easy balls where you can almost always hit a four or a six and the batters barely hit anything. The game is at its best when playing with a friend or on a hard difficulty.
Graphics and user interface: The graphics are solid and user interface just about the right size. the top left hand corner of the screen can become quite cluttered with the batting lists and such but every thing else is fine. clicking where you want to aim the bat or bowl the ball is easy and intuitive.
Overview: All in all Ashes cricket is a solid first entry for the cricket franchise to the wii. The game works fine without the help, or possible hindrance, of the wii motion plus. The easy to learn controls and re-playability value will make you want to come back for more and I would highly recommend this game to all ages!