The launch of Wii Sports Resort was held in Johannesburg yesterday at Core Gaming’s swanky new offices in Sandton. It felt like a day at the beach with the room decorated with umbrellas, hula-hoops, beach balls and Core Gaming staff decked out in Hawaiian style leis and flip-flops.

Eager journalists got the chance to try out Wii Sports Resort on one on five Wii consoles set up at the venue. We also got some hands-on time with the much anticipated New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus, due to be released sometime towards the end of the year. The games were flown out from Europe for the day and it’s great to see South Africa really being put on the map with these kind of events showcasing upcoming games.

Wii Sports Resort will be released across South Africa on the 24th of July. This release date is in line with Europe and, as with the launch of Wii Fit last year, South African and European gamers will get their hands on the game a few days before the US where the game is scheduled to hit shelves on the 26th of July.

Wii Sports Resort comes bundled with the new Wii MotionPlus accessory and will cost R699. Gamers will also be able to purchase an additional Wii MotionPlus for R349, which is available in stores now.

El33tonline will be posting our hands-on impressions of Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Fit Plus soon. Until then cast your eyes over the sales figures for Wii Sports Resort which give an indication of why you should look out for the game when it releases later this month.

Wii Sports Resort debuted at number 1 on the Media Create Japanese software chart, selling an impressive 360 000 copies in its opening week in Japan. It held on to the number one spot in its second week on the chart this week, with life-to-date sales now sitting at just over half a million copies since the game’s launch there on the 25th of June. This performance is hardly surprising given that Wii Sports is widely regarded as the best-selling game of all time, having sold 40.53 million copies as at December 2008.