Wii Sports

Wii Sports
"That's the game!"
Protagonist(s): The player's Mii Genre(s): Sports, Motion Platform(s): Wii Release Date: November 19, 2006 (US) December 2, 2006 (JP) December 7, 2006 (AU) December 8, 2006 (EU) Series: Wii Wii Sports Successor: Wii Play(Wii series) Wii Sports Resort (Wii Sports series)

Wii Sports is a 2006 game developed by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released on November 19, 2006 in the US. It is regarded as one of the top 5 best selling games of all time, and the single best selling game on a single console ever made, with 80+ million units sold, most Wii systems having this game included as a pack-in title.

A sequel, Wii Sports Resort, released in 2009 for the Wii, with many new sports added to the game as well Bowling and Golf making a return

A remaster, Wii Sports Club, released on the Wii U in 2013-2014, containing all 5 of the sports from this game in HD.

A reboot of the Wii Sports series, Nintendo Switch Sports, released on April 29, 2022, with three new sports (Badminton, Volleyball, and Soccer), and five returning ones (Chambara, Bowling, Tennis, Basketball, and Golf).

Why It's the Game

1. All of the games (except Boxing) are awesome and fun to play in both Multiplayer and 1 vs CPU(s) matches.
2. You can play as your Miis you created in your Mii Plaza in this game, and because of how advanced and creative the Mii Maker is, it can be very amusing seeing the Miis of Peter Griffin or Garfield playing sports.
3. In Tennis, if you do not put yourself in any of the spots, all of the spots will be filled with CPUs, and as a result, you can watch a Tennis game with this feature.
   • You can also put yourself in all of the spots, which is actually fun to do.
4. In Bowling and Golf, you can play up to 4 player games with one Wii Remote, meaning that you can play with friends without needing Wiimotes for everyone.
   • However, it is considered more fun to play with multiple players, but it does not apply in other sports. This also applies to all training games.
5. It is one of the best-selling games of all time (the third-best-selling one, to be exact), and the best-selling game for a single system to date.
6. Despite being a tech demo, it has all kinds of unique features which are really fun that makes it even better.
7. The Wii Sports fitness tests, while inaccurate, are still fun and can help with fitness.
8. You can play with a teammate in Tennis to make the game easier. Unfortunately, it doesn't give you many skill points if you do win the game.
9. The Miis in your Mii Plaza can appear in your baseball team, meaning that you can technically play the game with 18 people.
   • However, you cannot choose them, so it is hard to have a satisfying time playing it like this.
10. There are many special features and Easter Eggs:
    • In Tennis, you can play on a blue court by pressing 2 till the court is visible and you are about to choose where you and the other players will go.
    • In Bowling, if you are a pro, you can play with a bowling ball with stars. Also, you can choose the color of your bowling ball by pressing one of the directions on the D-Pad until the alley is visible.
    • In Boxing, you can play with silver gloves after defeating the champion, Matt, by pressing the 1 button until the next match is about to start.
11. Amazing and memorable soundtrack, with the biggest examples being the title theme, the Boxing theme, the Bowling music, and many others.
12. The noises of the crowd are hilarious, especially when you throw the bowling ball behind you.
13. The CPUs are 60 unique Miis, 30 male and 30 female. Some of the most memorable CPUs in this game are Matt, Kentaro, Ryan, Elisa, Abby, Miyu, Sakura, etc.
14. In Power Throws, there is an Easter Egg known as the Secret Strike where on the last stage (91 pins), if the ball is rolled all the way down the lane on the side gutter guards, the screen will start shaking, which will knock down all the pins. This can really help if you want to get a platinum medal or max out the score in this mode.

Bad Qualities

1. Boxing is the only bad sport in this game, considering that the Nunchuck's tracking is awful and many of the people who you play against are annoying. This would later be improved upon with Punch-Out!! on Wii.
2. The game can be quite annoying when trying to master it.
3. As mentioned earlier, you cannot choose which Miis are on your team in Baseball.
   • If you use a Guest Mii or a Mii on your Wii Remote, or do not have enough Miis in your Wii Console, the game will use the CPU Miis to fill the slots.
4. Baseball is based mostly on trial-and-error, because there are times where you will hit the ball too soft and it will get caught, resulting in an out, there are times where you hit it hard and it goes out of the park, resulting in a home run, or there are times where as a pitcher, you try to throw a Splitter, and a ! appears over your Mii's head, causing a slow, easily hittable fastball, worst thing about this, it is out of your control.
5. Despite the training activities being fun, there are some problems:
   • Returning Balls can have bad tracking and appears way too much in Wii Sports Fitness tests.
   • The baseball activities are very hard for the average player. Also, none of the 3 baseball training activities focus on pitching, only batting.
   • Like the baseball activities, the bowling activities are also hard especially considering barely any of this matters in the actual game (unless of course, you just get lucky with splitters). However, the power throws were really good.
   • The Golf activities are arguably the hardest as they just are way too much and arguably has the most difficult platinum medal missions. However, while the driving range could be better, it is not as bad as the others.
   • The last two boxing activities (therefore the last activities in the entire Wii Sports Training place) are downright biased. Dodging can be completely random with the balls and they can be difficult to avoid. Throwing Punches can be VERY difficult to master, especially if you keep hitting Matt by accident.

Reception

Wii Sports received generally favorable reviews from critics and audiences alike (scoring 76/100 and 8.0/10, respectively, on Metacritic). It is also the third-best-selling game of all time, and the best-selling Nintendo game/game exclusive to one console.

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