Wii Sports Resort

Written by Matt Swider  on June 16, 2009

E3 09 Hands-On Preview: Now with even more addictive money-printing capibilities.

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Wii Sports Resort is the much-needed sequel to the pack-in game that comes with every Nintendo Wii (except if you live in Japan). Because the original Wii Sports sold more than 45 million copies, it became the best-selling video game of all time. But, it also became the most overplayed collection of mini-games in video game history. Thankfully, Resort refreshes the fun we first had more than two and a half years ago. And, just by looking at its list of mini-games, you could say that the sequel is twice as good because it more than doubles the amount from five you've played to death to a dozen brand new events. But, the more specific reason that the sequel is worth its $39.99 standalone price is because of the entertaining ways that these mini-games put the included Wii MotionPlus' capabilities to use.

At E3 2009, we got a chance to play Archery, which puts Wii MotionPlus to the accuracy test along with both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Firing an arrow required holding the two devices away from our body with both arms extended out in front. Once we were in this position, pressing the Nunchuk's Z button allowed us to carefully line up our shot and pulling the Nunchuk back toward our bodies bent the bow string, just like it would in real life. Letting go of the Z button acted as if we had released our finger from the bent string and hurtled the arrow to wherever we left the reticule. After a few shots, we had an easy time lining up the targets and way that the game cycled through different environments and target distances reminded us of the entertaining Link's Crossbow Training for Wii from 2007.



After a couple rounds of Archery, we had to give Swordplay another shot since we had a blast testing it out during our E3 2008 coverage of Wii Sports Resort. The single-player proved slower and more about learning precision, so we quickly switched over to the real fun: battling a human opponent in two-player versus. The Wii MotionPlus was able to pick up our detailed wrist motions while we waved the Shinai-like sword in our hands. By comparison, the Wii Remote without MotionPlus would've probably picked up our slapping the sword forward and imitated a limited number of movements and animations. It would've been more about timing. Now it's about both timing and technique.