Wii Sports Resort delivers on it's original promise, and more!
This was the case for many first impressions, but as time went on we all began to see it's flaws and that 'comparable difference' started to feel less revolutionary.
The reason for this minor hindsight was to hopefully make some of you remember your initial feeling of elation and optimism when first experiencing the Wii controller.
These exact feelings returned to me as I blew the dust and cobwebs off of my Wii, popped in Wii Sports Resort, watched the 3 minute instructional video of how to connect the Wii Motion Plus, and calibrated the Wii controller seamlessly.
As you all know from reading a review after review, you start off jumping out of an aeroplane, used as a tutorial on how to use the controller no doubt. Tilting, rolling, spinning the controller to affect your Mii's movement in the air. It felt awesome. That's all I can say.
Skipping the over saturated, Wuhu Island introduction, we are straight into the main menu. 12 sports, each with multiple variations.
I won't go into every sport but all I can say is that I was taken back by how natural and gorgeous this game feels.
Swordplay in particular was an absolute treat. Some reviewers have mentioned it still has the same "waggle" controls, but they fail to mention its 1 to 1 waggle controls. You can swing realistically or waggle until your heart is content, either way, it feels brilliant!
In the Speed Slice game, you slice objects based on the arrows presented, This game is by far the most addictive motion based game I have ever played. Basically you are pitted against the computer Mii (of a friend's Mii if you have any friends) and over-sized objects fall in front of you requesting you to slice them base don particular angles indicated. The controls are 1 to 1 perfect. And what is more fun that actually playing the game is performing a "waggle attack" on them. For example, a gigantic loaf of bread landed in front of mii (pun intended) I attacked it with a vertical slice followed by an onslaught of vertical waggling, turning the loaf into a pile of sliced bread. Awesome! (Best thing since sliced....no I won't...)
Other objects included huge boiled eggs, tree trunks, water melons, bamboo, oranges etc, which ALL look stunning when sliced to bits, and I must also point out the sound effects here; gorgeous and addictive.
If you should buy this game for one reason, this minigame would be it.
Of course the game itself is not without it's flaws - some graphical imperfections, some rigid animations and physics, and some unimpressive mini games, such as canoe-ing and cycling.
But all in all this game surpasses my initial expectation. It has brought new life to my Wii, made me remember why I bought the Wii and fills me with optimism for future Nintendo games and hopefully improved third party games as well.
A new Zelda with Motion Controlled sword play anyone?
A gorey zombie slash fest?
Red Steel 2!
A new Waverace?
I could go on...
The Motion Plus add on is severely recommended on my behalf!