We are a video gaming household. I know what an 85 discipline priest in tier 11 gear is. Whether it’s a game of sudoku, an online game, or a Wii game, I enjoy leveling up, achieving high scores, and otherwise building my dexterity and hand-eye coordination. I write all of this so you know that I’m not some n00b when it comes to video games, so when I tell you that I’ve never played a game like Wii Motion: Play, you’ll appreciate what that means.
About Wii Play: Motion
The Review
I’m going to tell your right now, that I had the honor of hosting a special Wii Play: Motion party, courtesy of Nintendo. To celebrate this grand event, we were provided with ice cream, all the fixings that should be had with a good sundae, and my guests got to walk away with special ice cream bowls.
To kick off the event, we started out with one of the first multi-player games – Skip Skimmer. In this game, you use your controller and you “skip” rocks across the virtual water. It measures angle of the controller, speed of the controller, and direction to determine how good of a throw you have made. Incidentally, I ROCK at skipping virtual rocks. High score of 39 skips in one throw here. HOLLA! After each throw, you can analyze how you did and the game offers advice for improving. The special effect rocks that come out in the later rounds were big hits – nothing like watching your rock skip a few times and then fly into the sky like a UFO, or having it “meow” with each skip.
The next game up was Cone Zone (the game that inspired our ice cream party.) You start with the controller pointing straight up, then you need to keep your ever-growing ice cream cone balanced as scoops of ice cream get placed onto your cone. I let the others go head to head in the Cone Zone. (Re: the picture below – technically it’s just how the controller is pointed, but clearly these guys thought that actually leaning would help too.)
The best part of Wii Play: Motion is how you can use the Wii Remote Plus controller to get fully involved in the game. You don’t have to worry about keeping infrared sensors aligned or whether you’re positioned just right.” The truest testament to this fact (at least for me) was when we played the “Spooky Search” mini game.
The goal of the game is to hunt and catch several ghosts that are hidden around the room. The catch? You really can’t see the ghosts; all you have is a gentle beeping coming from your controller to let you know if you are getting closer or further away (more beeps or fewer beeps.) The ghosts can be anywhere around YOU (not the characters in the screen) which means you can be completely turned around, with your back towards the game, pointing your controller into the room next door and listening for the “beeping” to let you know the ghost is close. Since when do you not even need to point the controller at the TV? When we first tried the game, we couldn’t find any of the ghosts because we kept pointing at different areas of the TV. But…BUT!!! Once we pointed the controller up towards the ceiling, or off to the right, “beep beep beep” we found the ghosts.
Of course the best way to finish off a long day of gaming is to build up our own ice cream sundaes. Fortunately these weren’t leaning and no ice cream was spilled in the process of eating these sundaes.
With so many different games, ranging from 1 player to 4 player, and with varying levels of difficulty, Wii Play: Motion is the perfect party game to provide fun and entertainment for everyone. The new ways you can motion with the controller take console game to a new level that is even more engaging than it was before.
Wii Play: Motion is in stores now for $49.99 and comes bundled with a Wii Remote Plus controller. (Don’t worry! You can upgrade your standard Wii controllers with a Wii MotionPlus adapter so they can be used with Wii Play: Motion.) It is also available on Amazon for a slight savings at $47.86.
Wii Play: Motion Online
Disclaimer: This post consists of my (and/or fellow tester) opinions only. Your experiences may be different. No compensation was given for this review/giveaway. I did receive a free product and other party items from the manufacturer or their representing PR agency to use and test for the purposes of this review. This did not affect the outcome of this review.
sounds like fun, but we’re a PS3 family and the only ones who use it are 15 and 13yob’s–I’m just not into video games. Probably because my brothers hogged the Atari.
I recognize that Dayspring dry-erase message board–have the same one…bought it with the gift certificate I won from you.
I can not wait for my daughter to get old enough to play!! So going to buy her a Wii!! Great Review!!