I have been testing Wii Sports Resort in single player (for myself) and in multiplayer with the Expanded Audience. The two groups I played with were 60+ seniors and 5+ year old children so it is capping the old and young completely.
“But Malstrom, what about the hardcore?”
I don’t want any of that hardcore filth in my household! They would just whine like little babies when 60+ year old grandma whoops them in archery or frisbee.
So for each game of Wii Sports Resort, I will measure the response I saw on the young people and on the old people. 10 will be the highest. 1 will be the lowest.
Swordplay
I could not get the young kids to stop playing sword fighting. They just did duels over and over and over again. They would occasionally do some sword slice and do some showdown if they were able to do single player. They also enjoyed doing duels single player against the computer. Swordplay is a direct hit with the young.
The old did not respond to swordplay as well. They saw it as too much effort. I even pit them against the young players. The thing is that the old could play the game, and they played it well enough to be competitive with the young. Due to the sudden and fast movements swordplay requires, the old tended to stay away from this game.
Score: 7
Swordplay is fantastic if you are young. When you are old, it isn’t as appealing. You will not see nursing homes be playing ‘swordplay’. If it weren’t for the old, swordplay would have gotten a 10.
Wakeboarding
The young people did not warm to this mode at all. What they were supposed to do with the controller was confusing. The old people seemed overwhelmed with this mode, and they had no desire to ever play it again.
I suspect the problem with Wakeboarding is that the motion controls don’t translate to what people normally percieve. For example, golf is simple because everyone understands that you swing a golf club and you swing the controller. But what are the ‘natural controls’ for wake boarding? This caused great confusion.
The game, as well, wasn’t too appealing. Just doing tricks and getting ‘points’ didn’t appeal to either the old or young. The young got a little more competitive with it.
Score: 1
This is likely the worst game in the bunch. If the game is good, there is such a steep learning curve with so little fun that neither the old or young give a care to find out.
Frisbee
Frisbee was very interesting as it had a high learning curve and polarized the young and the old. The old people really liked Frisbee. The young people were very much opposed to it and just whined that they wanted to play Swordplay some more. After being forced to play Frisbee, they eventually got better. Interestingly, the young warmed to Frisbee much, much, slower than the old people did.
Frisbee Dog was more popular with the old. They loved commenting on the dog’s wiggling butt to get the other player to laugh to mess up his/her throw. The young weren’t too thrilled with this mode.
Frisbee Golf appealed to both groups much more. The old obviously recognized the golf mechanics in the game and easily got into it. The young liked it as well. There is some serious content with the golf courses so Frisbee Golf never got old.
Score: 9
Archery
Archery was a direct hit with both the old and the young. Both the old and the young had the same difficulty of holding the controller still enough to get a certain shot. Since the game was in turns and was more laid back, the old very well enjoyed it.
The biggest issue with archery is that many people forgot to put the Wii-Mote into their left hand. But this was a small issue if any.
The only thing that might have been lacking was more courses. The four targets are almost all at the same location with the exception of the volcano. Three difficulty levels (stationary, moving, and moving and barrier) are the only things that seem to differentiate the courses. This mode is crying out to be fleshed out some more.
Score: 10
Everyone understands shooting a bow. There was no real confusion or non-enjoyment among both the old and the young. Direct hit with both the old and young.
Basketball
This game polarized between the old and young. The old people hated this game. It required too much effort. They disliked having to get up to shoot. And the controls have a learning curve to them.
Young people responded much better to the game. Perhaps it is because they were shorter and when they jumped, they didn’t scrape their hands on the ceiling or get their hands slashed by the ceiling fan.
The team basketball game was too frustrating and complicated for the seniors to enjoy. And since they didn’t like 3 point basketball, they definately did not enjoy this.
The young people seemed to get into this mode much more. However, Basketball was just one of those modes to play when they were not doing Swordplay. And even then, most of the time they picked something other than basketball.
Score: 3
Basketball is probably stayed away from due to how much physical effort it requires.
Table Tennis
The simplicity and pick-up-nature of Table Tennis made it a constant staple when going fro game to game. This shouldn’t be surprising considering the popularity of Wii Sports Tennis. However, Table Tennis had the most complaints and it came from both the old and young.
Both the old and the young had no problems playing it or understanding how to play it.
The young kept pointing out that the ball looked like a cartoon.
The constant complaint came from both the old and the young were the controls. It was that the game wasn’t registering when they went backhand and forehand as rapidly as they like. They constantly blamed the game when they missed a ball. Normally, I’d think this just to be a sore loser but both the 5+ and 60+ made this complaint. They liked the game, they were just frustrated with the controls.
It was also very disapointing that Table Tennis didn’t have four player. Real table tennis does have four player and four player Tennis was fun in Wii Sports. There is no excuse for the lack of four player.
Table Tennis is a really good single player experience as well.
Score: 7
Lack of four player sorely hurts this mode. Control issues are raised by both the old and young. The game is really fun and easy to get into. However, there are things that are holding it back to becoming a true stand-out.
Golf
Golf, which was popular in Wii Sports, is now more popular in Wii Sports Resort. Both the seniors and the kids really enjoyed this game.
The additional 9 courses was very nice as well.
One senior had a funny complaint. With Wii Golf, he could just swing his controller like a bat, and it would work. Now, he actually has to stand up and hit it unless he wants to see his ball fly out of bounds. He remarked how he was too fat swing the controller perfectly due to his big round stomache.
What else is there to say about Golf that hasn’t been said? Both the old and the young liked it. The turn based game is laid back enough for the old to enjoy it. The young understand what golf is as well and so the game makes sense to them.
Score: 10
Golf was constantly played. Frisbee Golf was also excellent, though the learning curve of the frisbees held that one back especially among the young.
Bowling
Everyone loves the 100 pin bowling. Everyone.
Bowling was extremely popular in Wii Sports. In Wii Sports Resort, it is just as entertaining. The turn based mode is laid back enough for the old to enjoy. The young understand bowling pretty well. There were no learning curve issues in knowing how to bowl.
The spin control mode was something I enjoyed, but everyone seemed to gravitate towards the first two modes.
Score: 10
This is another direct hit. It was constantly played on my Wii along with the Golf modes.
Power Cruise
Interestingly, both the old and the young did enjoy this mode. However, there was a very steep learning curve for them to get into the game. And when they did, they did tire because “of all the effort”. The young just wanted to go back to swordplay (as they always do).
The game was too ‘fast’ and required ‘nimble hands’ which is what pushed the old from it. For the young, they got frustrated when the jet ski didn’t immediately respond the way they wanted.
In this mode, I believe doing it a turn by turn approach is what killed it. Four player simultaneous game would have been far more entertaining. This game simply does not work in multiplayer. If a game requires nimble hands (like swordplayer or tennis), it is better to have simultanous multiplayer. Slow, controlled movement sports work best with turn modes.
The water was very nice, however.
Score: 5
Canoe
Canoe is something both the old and the young started with great enthusiasm. Everyone understands canoeing. However, in the game it was a different story. The old and the young complained about the game took too much effort. I expect that complaint from the old, but it came from the young as well! They got bored of Canoe very quickly.
The four people in a canoe is interesting for about two minutes. Everyone also complained about the controls.
What this mode really needed was a laid back exploration mode like the Airplane. Yes, I know you can do it in the practice mode. But you are stuck in an uninteresting lake. It would have been fun to paddle around the island and let the waves move you around.
Score: 3
Cycling
Cycling was something no one wanted to try out. After all, cycling sounds ‘boring’ just as it is. However, once played, the game became far more popular. Both the old and the young had the same experience with it. The learning curve was pretty strong, at first, but both the old and the young managed to understand it.
The old got a kick how if your character was tired, he would drink from his water bottle.
Cycling was more of an ‘OK’. It wasn’t something annoying like Wakeboarding. But it wasn’t something really appealing to them like Swordplay or Golf.
Score: 6
Cycling was been underestimated. However, the mode never truly comes alive. Slick production work on it, however.
Air Sports
This was a sport that polarized between the old and young. The old did not care for Air Sports at all. The airplane mode didn’t appeal to them since they saw no real appeal of exploring the imaginary island. With the old, their real lives are more interesting to them than anything inside a video game. Dogfighting, with its need for nimble hands, didn’t appeal to them at all.
The young, however, really did enjoy airplane, and they loved dogfighting. Airplane was the most often played mode for the young when they were not doing Swordplay.
Both the old and the young played Parachuting only once to realize they didn’t like it at all and never chose to play it again. I can’t blame them. Nintendo somehow made parachuting very dull. It would have been more fun to actually guide your Mii to hit ‘land targets’ located on the islands not unlike how it was done in Pilotwings. Parachuting mode wasn’t well done.
Score: 7
It was popular with the young, but the old never cared for it. Parachuting didn’t appeal to anyone.
Conclusion
Swordplay, Golf, Bowling, Frisbee, Table Tennis, and Airplane are the ones people will most often play. In the nursing home, expect only Golf, Bowling, and Frisbee to gain any traction.
A big disapointment with Wii Sports Resort was the lack of simultaneous multiplayer especially four player simultaneous multiplayer. The only mode four player was in was with Canoe. And Canoe is not that fun.
Going back to old Wii Sports
Going back to old Wii Sports is a shock since the game is now totally and absolutely destroyed.
Bowling- Completely inadequte due to the superior controls and new modes in Resort.
Golf- Resort has much better controls and more courses.
Baseball- This wasn’t too much fun anyway. People would rather do archery. Odd that a full baseball game wasn’t put in with Resort.
Boxing- Also, it wasn’t that much fun at first anyway. If people want to fight one another, they would rather do it in Swordplay. Boxing is too tiring anyway.
Tennis- This mode is the only one of Wii Sports that hasn’t completely gone obsolete. Though the poor controls really stand out after playing with Motion Plus, Tennis feels more fun than Ping Pong. Having four people in Tennis also shows the glaring hole not having four people in Ping Pong was. Despite this, Tennis has aged pretty badly. It just hasn’t aged as rapidly as the others.
Wii Sports, despite being the best selling game ever made, will become obsolete very quickly. Wii Sports will not be ‘eternal’ where people are still playing it like they did Super Mario Brothers.
Unlike the classics, Wii Sports will not age well. However, it’s primitiveness could become ‘iconic’ like how Pong became ‘iconic’. Those Miis bouncing around will never get old.
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