Monday 25 Sep 2006

Nintendo fans, get your sweatbands ready.

It is no surprise that the Wii-mote has opened up endless barriers for console games, it has added another dimension to the way we interact with the games, movement.

The upcoming launch title from Nintendo, for the Wii system, Wii Sports promises to live up to more than just being a nice tech demo as some people are calling it. Yes, at first I also felt that way, but then again I also felt that Yoshi Touch & Go was just a tech demo for the DS and that is still one of my favourites for that system.

In yet another surprise from Nintendo, they recently announced that Wii Sports will be coming as a pack-in game for the launch of the Wii in the USA, Europe and Australia (this will be the first launch pack-in game since Super Mario World at the launch of the SNES). The price of the Japan system is lower then the rest of the world because of the fact that it does not come with Wii Sports, but the Japanese will be able to purchase the game separately, it will be bundled along with an additional Wii-mote.

The game features 5 different sports: Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Boxing and Golf. All the games are quite basic to play and rely on the intuitive response of the players movement to play the game. For instance, in the golf game the players shot will be automatically lined up towards the hole, the only input you will give is the actual swing of the club. Depending on how hard you hit the ball or if your club was skew or not will judge where the ball lands up.

Tennis will be the only 4 player simultaneous game. Players will be presented with a split screen image, one for each side of the court so that it is easier for the players to determine how they should hit the ball. Each player’s character will automatically move towards the ball. It is then up to the player to play the correct hit, whether it be forehand, backhand, volley, punt or smash. In a press release Nintendo have stated that the controller will be sensitive enough to pick up the exact velocity and angle of the Wii-mote and that it will be possible to add spin onto the ball and do all kinds of tricks that you would be able to do on a real tennis court.

The boxing game will be the only one that uses the features of the Nunchuck controller. Players will hold the two controllers to control where their fists are in the game. To block the player will have to raise his arms in front of his face, and every now and then try to get in a quick left, right, right. The boxing will feature a two-player split screen mode.

Baseball will see the players standing at the home plate swinging at balls that the CPU tosses towards you. Again, it is all about the angle of the bat and the amount of force, you will also be able to add spin and do other funky stuff like that. There is a two-player mode that sees one player pitching the ball whilst the other bats (split screen again).