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Wii Sports Resort review
The game of the summer is here - Wii Sports Resort is a worthy sequel to the best-selling game of all-time
Written by Chris Schilling, 07 August 2009
Bigger, better, faster, more. Resort might not have the seismic impact of its predecessor, but it blows it away in terms of content and control. Bundled with Nintendo's new MotionPlus peripheral, the game reads player inputs with far greater sensitivity than was capable before - while one or two games barely use it, you can't imagine the rest possibly working without MotionPlus.
It's the kind of game where everyone will have a different favourite, though few will argue against the quality of Swordplay and Table Tennis. Both make splendid use of the Nintendongle slotted into the base of the remote, with the former being particularly good fun in multiplayer, though offering a great deal of solo fun in the terrific Showdown mode. The latter is great fun with two well-matched players, yet offers a seriously testing challenge for the lone gamer, with the champion being incredibly difficult to beat. The wave of relief and satisfaction that washes over you when you finally win is among the best feelings we've had this console generation.
PlayZine Issue 31
For our latest Wii Sports Resort coverage, click here to download PlayZine Issue 31 for free.Elsewhere, Frisbee is a surprise highlight, with a simple but perfectly-judged control scheme which requires real precision to score big. Air Sports feel like a dry run for a Wii Pilotwings - the events are slight but utterly joyous. Basketball offers two modes - an addictive three-point challenge and a three-on-three match that just seems to get better and better the more you play and figure out its nuances. Wakeboarding is another which deserves a little more fleshing out, but its simplicity is its greatest strength.
Archery features one of the best control schemes of the lot, and feels one of the most well-balanced in multiplayer. Canoeing offers the only simultaneous four-player game - if you can afford three extra MotionPluses, it's an absolute hoot - and pushing the paddle through the water just feels *right*. Golf and Bowling return in slightly improved form - if you simply wanted more of the same with finer control, then you'll get a lot of enjoyment from these.
Even the two weak links have their charms. Power Cruising seems to suffer from the introduction of the nunchuk, whose tilts aren't as sensitive as those of the remote, making it a rare control fumble. Yet it's a lot of fun in Free Cruise mode. Then there's Cycling, which we rated at 5/10 for our review, but extended play has revealed it to be one of the most strategic and fully-featured of the game modes. Again, the controls feel a little clumsy, but we'd be tempted to hike that score up a bit now.
And that's the beauty of Resort - there's so much to do that if you get bored of one sport, you can move onto the next. You'll try a game mode you'd not previously tried and suddenly get hooked. You'll attempt to get some of those incredibly tough flower stamps (a kind of Nintendoised Achievement system). You'll discover secrets like the 11-match game in Table Tennis, or the hidden targets in Archery. It's possible to carp about the lack of options for some events, that it would have been better with certain events removed with the rest expanded a bit, but then you'd be taking out someone's favourite, or another game that you can simply try for fifteen minutes when you fancy a break from the ones you like best. In trying to be all things to all people, perhaps Wii Sports Resort spreads itself a little too thinly at times, but there are few games that'll make you smile quite so broadly and so regularly as this does.
Wii Sports Resort coverage available in PlayZine Issue 31 - click here to download it for free!
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