and All Consoles

Published by: Nintendo
Genre: Sports
Players: up to 4 players
Release Date: November 19, 2006
ESRB Content Rated: E – Mild Violence
The Introduction from Nintendo:

This is what video games should be: fun for everyone. Wii Sports offers five distinct sports experiences, each using the Wii Remote controller to provide a natural, intuitive and realistic feel. To play a Wii Sports game, all you need to do is pick up a controller and get ready for the pitch, serve or that right hook. If you’ve played any of these sports before, you’re ready for fun!

Wii Sports:

Wii Sports is the first game that has been packed with a Nintendo console since Super Mario World was released with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is a compilation pack of 5 different sports events: baseball, boxing, bowling, golf, and tennis.
Game Play:

Each of the five sports games does it’s best to represent the sport; however they are all simplified versions. If you take tennis for example, all you are required to do is control the movement of your tennis racket. The players are automatically controlled and run where ever they are supposed to. Although these simplifications to take away some of the game play from each sport, there are still quite a few of options for each sporting event.

The most exciting of the five games in Wii Sports is the bowling game. Getting the hang of using the Wii remote can take some time, as it is very precise, even too precise for some games. Golf tends to be the game that suffers from the over-precision of the Wii remote. The least entertaining game out the compilation is the baseball. As all the fielding is taken care of for you, it is only necessary to concentrate on throwing the ball, and hitting the ball. For many this may just seem too dull. This game does however shine is in the multiplayer mode.

With the option to play some of the games simultaneously it will be necessary for more than just one Wii remote. Other games, such as bowling, are played in turn. Each player takes their own turn and then passes the remote to the next player.

This game also allows for the use of “Miis”, which are caricatures that can be created with the Wii console. Nintendo intention for this game was not for it to win Game of the Year awards; it was to offer an exciting and fun experience for the casual gamers as well as the non-gamers. They have ultimately reached their goal, as the Wii Sports is a great deal of fun, even for the core gamers.
Using the Controls:

The controls for each of the five sports are exactly what you would hope for; a throwing motion to throw a ball, a rolling motion for bowling, a swinging motion for swinging a baseball bat or tennis racket, etc. Only with the exception of golf, the controls are very user-friendly and intuitive.

Look and Appearance:

The graphics in Wii Sports are not what you could call amazing; some are referring to them as terrible. In fact, they are probably worse than terrible. However, this was intentional on Nintendo’s behalf. They wanted to create a game that had basic graphics and absolutely fantastic game play.
Sound Effects:

The sound is similar to the graphics, nothing really to get excited about. Simple music and sound effects are used throughout these games.

And the Pros are:

+ It’s FREE!
+ Fantastic for multi-player
+ Mostly intuitive controls
+ Infinite replay value
And the Cons are:

- Terrible graphics
- Some games are too simple

Overall: 8 / 10

Published By Darren Lintern

The Xbox 360 had the luxury of a year’s head start over its competition, the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, and that served Microsoft well. For any serious gamer the thought of waiting a year may be just too damn long, and they certainly gained market share in view of this, at least in North America and Europe. But now that all the shiny new consoles are out, is the Xbox 360 starting to show its age and look a bit shabby?

To start with, each of the three consoles – the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo’s Wii all has their own dedicated fan base that won’t change their minds for anything. These diehard fans do matter, simply for the fact that their spend on gaming is probably worth a fair few families of the casual gamers. And without doubt all these consoles significantly outperform their predecessors.

The two games consoles that are the easiest the do a straight comparison with is the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. They are both intended to function as more than simply a games console – they play DVD’s and music, connect with the internet, display photos, and allow chat. Sony will however be in major trouble if Blu-Ray loses out in the high-density DVD war with HD-DVD. Microsoft has also an edge with their online content, having had the ability to build up a considerable and frequently-updated stock over the last year. They’re now providing movies for download via the Xbox Live Marketplace. It is likely that Sony will eventually catch up with this, but for now, Microsoft holds the edge.

The start with, if you put aside what’s actually inside the consoles for a moment and look at how the consoles perform instead of how they should, the PlayStation 3 isn’t really a year ahead of the Xbox 360. If you do a side by side comparison of cross-platform games this will tend to favour the Xbox 360, which has the ability to offer better lighting effects and less of a tendency to flatten and blur textures. Although, having taken this into account, the PlayStation 3 still has longer loading times.

The Xbox 360 is well and truly a Microsoft product. In the attempt to get the console out quickly wasn’t the best way to ensure reliability, and as widely reported a small but still significant number of the original releases crashed to ‘blue screen of death’. Also, during the recent Fall update, where Xbox Live use were required to download to access the service, causing about one percent of consoles to brick.

The PlayStation 3 console has offered the Sixaxis controller, Sony’s half-assed attempt to respond to the Wii-mote. Whilst this will enable your to tilt the controller to affect your on-screen movements in games such as Tony Hanks, you still get much better control from using the conventional D-pad. If you compare the Sixaxis to the Wii-mote there is a simply object lesson in the difference between a rushed gimmick and an innovation.

So on to Nintendo’s Wii, starting with its bad points. It doesn’t support HD-TV display, and not equipped to play DVDs. If you only looking for your game console to play games, than this should not really be much to worry about. It’s just a game console and that’s that. It’s not by any means as graphically impressive as its rivals. The wireless controller needs to run on batteries rather than being rechargeable.

But hold on. Nintendo have attempted to attract the family and non-gaming market with the impressive play abilities with the Wii-mote. Yet still be able to keep the hardened gamers in view of its difference in game play. Even though being different, Nintendo are also better at being the same – the Wii has been designed to be backwards compatible with more of the old console games than with either the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360. This is particularly appealing at that, offering software emulation for a impressive 30% of Xbox games.

It’s always going to be a hard call to make, which is the best console. But if you word the question differently, will the Xbox 360 sink without a trace since the release of its newer and shinier cousins, the answer is NO. If you preference is serious, mature-rated games with lots of online content, your choice will have to be between the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, and then to go with your preferred choice, usually whatever you had before, Sony or Microsoft. But if you now looking for family gaming, or something to play with a bunch of mates, then the Nintendo Wii should definitely be your new best friend.

Darren Lintern