Wii Play is a game that doesn’t get much credit. Wii Sports sells the idea of motion controls and, as a pack-in, has the highest penetration rate of any Wii software. In some minds, Wii Sports is the Wii.
Wii Play is known best for being a huge financial success. It has sold over 28 million units as of March 2015. Many of its sales can be attributed to being bundled with an additional controller, but the game itself actually serves its own purpose.
Wii Play doesn’t attempt to sell you motion controls again. The focus is clearly on the Wii Remote’s pointer. It features a total of nine games , including laser hockey, hide and seek, cow riding, a Duck Hunt clone and more.
It’s a big number compared to the four base games found in Wii Sports. However, quantity comes at the cost of quality. Wii Sports’ limited scope means each game is fundamentally sound, at which point they are extended into additional modes. Wii Play’s games are all decent singular attractions, though most of them feel unrefined.
Table tennis has some skill involved, yet it’s so sensitive it’s difficult keeping your paddle in play. The visuals in the fishing minigame lack depth making it hard to understand where your fishing rod is located in the world. Laser hockey can’t emulate the resistance needed for you to feel in control, meaning you end up with a loose cursor that often gets stuck on walls.
There are some great games in the collection though. I’m no a pool expert, but this game’s representation of it feels surprisingly polished for just another minigame. My personal favorite is an isometric tank game that harkens back to Combat on the Atari 2600. It gives you a series of levels to complete by destroying waves of enemy tanks. Your bullets ricochet off walls and you can remote detonate mines. It even offers a co-op mode, which is tons of fun. It’s a shame Nintendo never expanded on this.
Cutting out half the bulk in favor of what was working would have made Wii Play a better package. Nevertheless, for what was essentially a $10 title once you took out the price of the controller, it was hard to be too terribly disappointed with another fun party game.
