Customer Reviews

Wii Play with Wii Remote

5 star:		(239)
4 star:		(286)
3 star:		(169)
2 star:		(72)
1 star:		(78)

 

 

This rating is based on the theory that this is a 10$ game bundled with a remote. Only worth buying because it comes with remote, other than that, it should be in the 15$ bin. I give this a 5 star fun rating because for 10$ (10$ game +40$ remote), you really get your money worth with multiplayer. I am going to review each mini game and then the game as a whole.

The games:

Shooting: Easily could have just turned this into duckhunt instead of releasing a real duckhunt game later this year. This game is a fun shooter, however the targets (once you played each level a few times) generally appear in the same locations as the previous time you played the level. This game is slightly more fun for a single player competiting for a high score. Playing against a human opponent is more of a battle of who can shoot the targets first, which if you are playing against a new player or some one who is slow with the remote, it's not fun for them. But overall a fun shooter for a single player or 2 skilled players.

Find Mii: This is a really fun game, but only if you have a few miis created on your console. As you progress through the levels it can be very challenging and even though there are only a few objectives, the variety of levels makes the game worth playing. It can be fun for 2 people as well, however you should gain time instead of points in multiplayer. (Single player you gain time instead points) Where you can get to very high levels in single player, (the game only appears to end when you run out of time, I'm not sure if there is a level limit) you can't in multiplayer because you don't gain time. Overall a fun, brain-teasing game.

Pose Mii: The worst game on here. Very boring, repetative, and for the most part: pointless. There are only 3 poses and until higher levels, the Miis are generally standing straight up or slightly angled, so there is not much to do other than move the remote back and forth while bubbles pop. Very boring. It's about the same fun for single and multi.

Ping Pong: This lacks substance but still a decent challenge. I was hoping that you would actually swing the wii mote like a paddle to play this game, but you basically just move it back and forth, it swings for you. As for single player, you just see how many times you can rally against the computer. (no points awarded) Multiplayer is more fun, as you play for points, and can be fun to see how many times you can rally it with eachother as the ball builds speed. Overall fun, but they could have allowed you to actually swing the paddle.

Laser Hockey: This is easily one of the best games on the disc. I prefer the round paddle for added realism and better control. (hold A + B before the start countdown ends) This is a very challenging game and is very fun for multiplayer tournaments. Single player is pretty fun as well but the AI is pretty bad when the puck gets stuck in a corner. Overall a great mutliplayer game, however the puck doesn't move very fast when you "thrust it," instead the puck seems to build speed the more it's rallied off the wall and the opponents paddle.

Cow race: Some what humorous game, but overall not much replayability. Not really a point to playing single player, but can be fun against a human player. Only one course makes this game boring after a few runs, but every once in a while you can have fun with it. The controls are creative and fun when you have a group of people playing.

Fishing: Fun for both single player and multiplayer. Much like the shooting game, fishing for a high score in single player is what holds this game's fun. As for multiplayer, much like shooting again, both players should be evenly skilled, otherwise one player catches all of the fish while the other player gets angry or discouraged. The controls are alright, they could have added some extra features and made it a bit like zelda fishing with the nunchuk reel and what not, but this game is too basic I think to incorperate that. All you really do is hold your rod in a pool of paper fish, and yank to catch when they bite. Overall a fun competition if you have 2 players of equal skill.

Tanks: This is one of the best games on the disc. Single player and multiplayer each hold their own challenge. The levels are the same for both modes, but single player you have lives, and every 5 levels completed, you gain a life. Mutiplayer you work as a team to beat each level while also competing for points by destroying the enemy tanks. (Multiplayer would be way more fun if you got lives like in single player, as the levels are tough and only having one chance before having to start back at level one when you both die at level 17 is very annoying) There are 20 levels to start and then more are unlocked the 2nd time through. (I've heard there are 100 levels) Use the nunchuk to steer if you have serious intentions, as the d-pad only works so long before your thumb feels awkward. Controls are decent and the game overall is extremely fun and challenging for 1 or 2 players.

Billiards: Wii play is worth owning just for this game alone. The physics are quite realistic and the gameplay is nice. Standard 9 ball rules, however to win you are awarded points per ball minus fouls. It would have been better to have whoever sinks the 9 ball legally win, but you can choose to play that way mentally before you start a game and ignore the points in multiplayer. The only problem I have is that I would like to be able to see the ball numbers on the overhead view, instead of having to scroll to each ball to see what ball it is. If you know the standard pool ball colors, I guess it wouldn't matter. Overall very fun competition for multiplayer. It seems like they could have easily included an 8-ball variant as well with this. Oh well.

The game overall:

Before you critique this game harshly, understand that its sole purpose is to demonstrate the wii mote, like wii sports. That is why it's a ten dollar game bundled with a 40 dollar wii mote. This game will probably never be sold without the remote, and if it is, expect it to be much cheaper. I give it 4 stars, becuase for what it actually is, it has a lot of multiplayer fun packed in it, especially with 9 ball, tanks, and air hockey. If it was 50 dollars and did not come with a wii mote, it would be a 2 star game, or nintendo would have included more mini games and more depth. This game has longevity with multiplayer as air hockey tournaments and billiards never get old, much like real life. As for improvements, I feel that this could easily support 4 players like wii sports. Also, many of the single player elements should have been included in multi, like getting extra lives in tanks, gaining time in find mii, etc. Billiards should have included 9-ball and 8-ball.

Pros+

Most of the games are decent

Fun multiplayer with longevity

In reality, it's only 10$

Easy but fun controls

Realistic physics in billiards and air hockey

Challenging games

Cons-

Pose Mii is awful

All games could have supported 4 players

Shooting, fishing, and cow race lack depth

Billiards should have 8-ball as well

Multiplayer modes should have the single player rewards like more lives and time

Conclusion:

This is a great buy if you need another remote, and want to have some multiplayer games in your library. If you already have 4 remotes, I would wait until this game is sold without the remote in the cheap bin before you pick it up. This has multiplayer longevity, but you probably won't find yourself playing this game alone.

This review is written for parents who are buying this for their kids:

Please note that this package does not include all the controllers you need to add a second player for most Wii games. The Wii Nunchuck is necessary for roughly 75% of the games available for the Wii. Even one of the games in Wii Play, the Tank game, requires you to have a Wii Nunchuck for all players... which means if you only bought this package in order to add a 2nd player you would still not have all the controllers you need for two people to play it. They probably didn't add the NunChuck to this package because it would've raised the price to $70. Beyond that, I have no complaints about the Wii Play games themselves, they are simple and fun and they make for a nice bonus. However, please be advised that you will need to also buy a Wii NunChuck if you are buying this in order to let your child play most of the games on his Wii with a friend.

If you already knew this... please ask yourself if other Amazon users who may find this review helpful and vote accordingly.

OK, so I am a casual gamer. That is OK. If you like games that are extremely fun for short bursts, like the original wii sports, you'll like this game. It is great. Most of the games are shallow, and suprisingly the tank-like game is one of the best of the bunch. But what is not to love about a decent representation of target shooting, pool, and ping pong. Come on, how deep do these need to be? Listen, my wife has gamed more in the last few weeks with the wii than she has in the last 6 years without it. That says something. Halo three this isn't. A fun game that is approachable by all of your non-gamer friends for an hour of absolute joy, this is.

I highly advise against buying this. Allow me to expalin...

Let's lay out the facts: A Wii Remote Controller on its own is $39.99. This Wii Remote + Wii Play game is $49.99. In essence, you are paying $39.99 for the Wii Remote and the remaining $10 for the game packed in.

Since you could just buy the remote separately what you really need to know is: "If I want another Wii Remote, should I pay an extra $10 for the Wii Play game?"

The answer is NO.

The Wii Play game is a collection of mini games in the vein of Wii Sports. The catch is that this time the games have far, far less appeal.

While we have logged countless hours on truly fun games like Wii Sports, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Mario Party 8, it took my wife and I only about 20 minutes to play through the entire Wii Play collection and not a single mini-game left us wanting to play it again. In fact, each game on Wii Play reminded me of cheesy freeware games you can download or play online at "cure for boredom" sites.

If, after reading this, you are still just dying to try it, I say: Borrow it from a friend. No friends have it? Ask yourself why. Then, if you STILL want to play it, go rent it. Spend $5 on a rental and discover for yourself that Wii Play has no "Rii" Play value.

This "game" is barely a game at all, it's more of a tutorial on how to use the Wiimote (included) and Nunchuk (not included). In fact, the first time you play through it, that's exactly what it's like... you can only play one game to start, and playing through it unlocks the next game. Each game teaches an additional skill or feature of using the Wiimote, building on the steps before it, until you've unlocked all the games and explored all the various modes of control.

Unfortunately, there's nothing really fun or compelling about any of the games that would make you want to spend any time playing them. There's just so little replay value as to make the game itself practically worthless. At a retail price of $49.99, it's a good thing they include a Wiimote, because the game itself is not worth the $10 difference between this and the cost of just buying a Wiimote by itself. I had hopes that at least a few of the games would be as compelling as the ones in Wii Sports, but no such luck. Billiards had some promise, but in general the gameplay is so shallow it's almost painfully boring to play. The Tanks game might have a little bit of replay value, but not much. Even as a tutorial this game can be a little boring and pointless at times.

This game is really a handful of mini games that serve as a primer on the use of the wii remote. They lack the depth and replay factor of the sports title that comes with the wii. They are more involved, however, than the mini games of wario ware. They are right in the middle.

Many reviews seem to think this game is going to serve as a sequel to wii sports. It's nothing like that game, and I think people who are expecting that level of complexity and fun are in for a rude awakening. For example, don't think the table tenis game will be as good as the tenis sports title because it isn't and doesn't try to be. It's a mini game. The laser pong is fun, though, and the duck hunt game is a great blast from the past, as is combat.

Of course the big issue is the extra remote. You get the remote and game together for $50. Is the wiiplay game worth $10? Absolutely! (I mean, it has far more playability than the Xbox 360 burger king games for a similar price point, plus without all the corporate propaganda!)

For all the naysayers talking bad about this game, I think they miss the point of it. This is a great $10 title. If it were packaged at that price as a stand alone without the remote, I'd buy it (and any similar sequels they'd release). At my house, we play the sports title as a party game on the weekends, and this game will serve the same purpose. You and your friends will have fun with 2 person multi here (I know, no 4 player, but come on, ten bucks remember?), or even just passing the remote around and trying some more truly innovative wii gaming here--just wait until you play the cow race mini game with your friends gathere around!

Bottom line is, remotes are harder to come by than Wii's during this initial wii release. If you can get your hands on this, you're silly not to get your hands on the remote. This is a game you should get right now. Don't wait. First, for that remote, and second, in a few months, the novelty of the wii remote will be getting stale, and there will be better games that make use this awesome technology. If you get the game now, though, it'll be great fun while the system is still fresh.

Wii Play is a multi-game arcade set along with a free remote. A better way to look at this is that you get a remote along with a free or perhaps cheap game. The games aren't great, but they're certainly not awful!

We had two Wii remotes and wanted a third one, so we could do party multiplayer. We assumed that the games that came with this would let you have more than 2 people playing. Wrong! These are all only two player games. That really seems a shame for a system that is set up to be a party machine.

The games are all rather straightforward and use the basic Wii remote functions. You can do a target shooting where you shoot at targets, ducks, cans, skeet targets and even space aliens. There's a pattern matching game where you try to figure out which Miis are the same or different. In another game, you rotate and change poses of your Miis to match the shape shown. There's a simple ping-pong, a simple table hockey, a simple pool, a cow race, a fishing game, and then tanks.

I had high hopes for many of these games. I love pool, I enjoy target shooting, and even fishing can be great fun. For whatever reason, they just didn't implement any of the games very well. Fishing in Zelda is FAR more fun than this fishing version. Pool is done much better in many other games. Even the target practice isn't varied enough to be interesting.

The only game that really holds our interest for long periods is the tank game. I *love* the tank game. It can be quite challenging, and is fun to play both alone and with others.

Really, you're not paying much at all for this game set. You're getting a nice remote, and you get the games for free. If you've got very young kids, they might be quite happy with racing cows, knocking over scarecrows, and trying to get the very best cow-racing score they can. In that case, you're all set! You paid very little for a game that fits your needs. For most gamers, though, don't get your hopes up too high. If you go in with low expectations, you might be pleasantly surprised with a game that catches your fancy.

Overview: As others have said - $40 for the Wii-mote and $10 for the game is a reasonable price for what you get here. Frankly, I'm glad WiiSports was the pack-in game - it's infinitely more fun than the collection of demos in WiiPlay.

The Games:
* The Shooting game isn't a bad introduction to pointing and clicking, and is rather challenging.
* Find Mii is cute, using the Miis from your Wii in the game - a nice touch.
* Pose Mii isn't as engaging as Find Mii, I found myself intentionally losing just to move on to the next "game".
* Table Tennis is practically worthless, thankfully Nintendo is releasing a full-fledge ping pong game later on.
* Laser Hockey is a good representation of Air Hockey and is fun both one and two player.
* Tanks is an interesting update on Combat from the Atari 2600.
* Fishing also seems to be a Wii-centric update on a 2600 game, Activision's Fishing Derby. There's no casting involved, just moving the hook to the right place and depth to get the fish you want - not spectacular, but not horrid, might be more fun 2 player.
* Pool is okay, but would've been infinitely better if played by real 9-ball rules.
* One game I've found a lot of fun is Charge!, where you ride a cow though scarecrows and jump over fences. Maybe it's just the control scheme, or the fact that a Cow is involved...I don't know - but it is my favourite.

Recommendation: If you need a WiiMote, go ahead and get this package - it's a good deal for a $10 demo disk and a WiiMote, especially because WiiMotes are hard to find. If you don't need another WiiMote, you probably won't find the demos (and that is all they are, tech demos) worth the $50, so it's not the purchase for you.

OK, we have all heard the negtive reviews for this game and they are just plain silly. If you want more to do, buy Smooth Moves. If you want adventure, buy Twilight Princess. If you want a brand new Wii remote and a nice little set of mini games, then buy Wii Play. I can understand some of the complaints, but to be perfectly honest, I found all of the games in this collection to be at the very least charming. I won't do a play by play of each game here, but the bottom line is this: the game is fun for one player and even more fun for two. I can see putting it down for several weeks and picking it up again to enjoy it once more. Many of the games are simple and intuitive, some are a throwback to the old Atari days and I mean that as a good thing. The billiards game is quite good and probably my favorite. Heck, if you find just one game in here that really grabs you, then it was worth the ten bucks you payed for it. The added bonus is the fact that you finally can get a second Wii remote, something as scarce as the Wii itself. I am very glad to have recieved this game. You should all pick up a copy and Play, Compete, and have some good Fun. It's all about the fun now anyway.

My husband and I bought the Wii Play this evening from Wal-Mart (btw, they had plenty). Overall the nine mini-games are fun, except for ping-pong. It is a failure. Since you do not have a split screen, it is basically impossible to engage in a game similar to tennis (from the wii sports). However, we enjoyed the laser hockey, tanks and pool, so for the price and for the extra remote, this package is worth buying.