Wii Sports Resort w/ MotionPlus

For those of you who don't want to read this lengthy review: the game is terrific, the minigames are outstanding, but if you want to play this with two or more people, you'll need to shell out quite a bit of money for additional MotionPlus addons.

Wii Sports Resort (hereafter WSR) takes the Wii Sports (WS) franchise to the next logical level. Whereas WS has five games, WSR has 12. Moreover, there are different modes in each of these twelve games. For example, the first game on the menu, Sword Play, there are three modes: a one-on-one spar against an opponent; a competition to slice various objects quicker than your opponent; and an all-out rampage against twenty or so opponents across ten different levels. So while Sword Play is ostensibly only one game, in reality there are three different things you can do with this single game.

Now, take that and extend it to the other games in the package. The Frisbee game has both Frisbee catch with a dog and Frisbee Golf. WSR Golf has eighteen holes, as opposed to WS's version with only nine holes. Include with these archery, kayaking, a new version of bowling, and a half-dozen more, and you've got a lot of games for the whole family.

One of the neat additions to the WSR version of Bowling is that it no longer requires holding down the B button in order to throw the ball. My three-year-old daughter struggles a lot with this in the original version, and this tiny little addition has really opened up the entire game for her. She'll be able to handle the coordination of swinging the Wii Remote and releasing the B button at the right time, but for now she's having *fun* -- and isn't that what the Wii is all about?

The game is completely appropriate for all ages. Sword Play, the most "violent" game of the bunch, has absolutely no blood and features players decked out in protective gear. Think competitive kendo instead of Kill Bill. Not only is there no violence, but these games are approachable for players of all ages, from preschool up.

With all of this fun, however, comes a cost -- literally. The Wii system comes with one remote and one nunchuk. Wii Sports Resort comes with one MotionPlus accessory, required for the game. If that's all you have, you'll have a great time by yourself. For each additional player that wants to play the game, you'll need an additional Wii Remote and MotionPlus accessory, plus a Nunchuk for some of the games. The cost per player is fairly high, unless you already have a set of Wii Remotes and Nunchuks.

Is it worth it? For me and my family, it was worth buying an additional MotionPlus addon so that two of us could play at the same time. Honestly, two players at the same time is more than enough; you can share remotes in some games (bowling, golf, archery), and some of the better games only support two simultaneous players (table tennis and sword play come to mind).

In short: Wii Sports Resort is a fun game for the whole family and well worth your time. However, watch out for those extra costs.

They call the resort island "Wuhu." Say it out loud. Woo Hoo!! That's what this game is. Woo Hoo fun! The water sports make you feel like you're actually out in the drink. Water droplets even splash back against the "camera" during the events. The characters feel weighted and true when bobbing over the waves. The flyover makes your stomach drop, as if you're truly performing stunts in a plane. Love the 100 pin bowling. I was not expecting to get into Frisbee Golf, but it's very addictive! Go down the list of games. Everything about it is absolutely enjoyable, and there's something for everyone, every skill level.

Only a couple of gripes. One - some events are not available unless you have two players, and two controllers (each with a Motion Plus dongle), and Two - that Motion Plus dongle is not compatible with wireless nunchuks. There are little plastic foot-nodes on the bottom of the device that will not allow for the clipping on of a wireless nunchuk dongle. I suppose one could file the nodes down flat to make space for it, but then you're damaging the thing. If it stopped working, they'd surely say it was because you filed off the plastic nodes. The only saving grace is that the sports that use the nunchuk do not require such elaborate hand motions as to suffer with the old fashioned wired nunchuk.

I give this one a 9.5. An outstanding entry in the Wii catalogue library.

I bought this game for the more precise controls, since that aspect of wii sports really frustrated me. While it has superior controls and more games, I didn't really get any more enjoyment out of it than wii sports, which wasn't much. I don't know why this game is popular, I would only recommend it if you know you will have people to play with.