Day Six: Wii Play

I would genuinely love to be able to give Wii Play a great Wii Workout Week score. Its another Wii title that offers good clean fun, especially when the family or friends gather around… Unfortunately, much like Wario on the fitness front, you’ll get absolutely zero out of it exercise-wise. Never mind, you’ll have a ball!

Fitness:

The list of mini games in Wii Play are more similar to Rayman Raving Rabbids than to Wario Ware. But they’re unfortunately more like Wario Ware than Rayman when it comes to fitness, which is a shame, but to be honest the title really doesn’t even try to offer anything remotely related to sport or fitness. Its just good clean fun.

None of the titles will get your heart rate above what standing still will, and hence it earns 1 tick. The title doesn’t offer any creative ways to fit a workout into its gameplay, so I can’t drag this good title up another tick no matter what I do. However, the old get into a squat, or on your back for some abs like I described in Mario Strikers can still be applied here if you’re conscious of trying to lose a few pounds.

Fun:

Wii Play comes out of the box with the same good feel that Rayman does. Everything about it is clean, happy and out to amuse you. For example, click on your Mii after the selection screen, and he’ll react differently depending on where you “poke” him.

Each of the mini games are an absolute ball with a group of friends over, old favorites like “Laser ball” (air hockey) even feel different using the Wiimote, and will keep you amused for quite a few hours.

The list of mini games on Wii Play is as follows:

• Shooting Range- an old fashioned point & shoot game. Take out normal targets, ducks, skeets and aliens trying to pick up a group of your Mii’s! Hilarious!
• Find Mii- I struggled with this one. Its like a where’s Wally type game where you have to use your powers of perception to pick similar or different looking Mii’s in different situations. Good luck!
• Table Tennis- A bit tough if you’re playing friends, as the board keeps spinning to a different perspective each round, but still a bit of mindless fun.
• Pose Mii- An absolute hoot if you’re out for some competitive fun with friends or family. This game alone could almost be called exergaming because it got my friends and I so fired up trying to beat each other. You basically have 4 different poses which can be changed by clicking the A or B button, you then twist the Wiimote to match your floating Mii’s shape to the shape of falling bubbles… Top marks for this game.
• Laser hockey- As I’ve said, just a retake on the old air hockey, but plenty of fun nonetheless.
• Billiards- A well implemented billiards game, but nothing out of the ordinary or especially fun about it.
• Fishing- This is a good one. Use the angle of your Wiimote and its distance from the screen to place a fishing hook next to different fish. This mini game also generated heated competition when friends came over to have a go.
• Charge- Not my favorite mini game, you need to guide your bull down a long course, knocking over scarecrows for maximum points. Also not so bad in multiplayer mode… needs a bit of something extra here though me thinks.
• Tanks- Guide your mini tanks over the map to destroy each other and the AI tanks. Plenty of fun again when friends are around, and a good bit of clean fun alone too.

Motivation:

Again I’m penalizing points here because while the game is really good fun, there’s just not an iota of fitness to be extracted from it. On the other hand, if you’re playing a few hours of Wii Play, rather than crowding around the Xbox, at least you’ll be standing and not all hunched up.

You’ll definitely keep coming back when friends and family are around, just not to break a sweat. Sorry Wii Play!

Wii Play comes bundled with a second controller for your Wii, making it a good option to try and find the bundle deal. Like I’ve said a bunch of times, exercising and gaming with friends and family is just a different experience to using the Nintendo on your lonesome, so I recommend grabbing a second controller if you can afford one.

If you’re in the market, support my site and buy one from Amazon, wontcha?