Wii owners eagerly anticipated the release of WiiSports Resort, the Wii game from Nintendo boasting the powers of the new MotionPlus attachment. The evidence of insane Wii MotionPlus sales prior to the release of WSR suggests that people were looking forward to this game long before its release.

When we compare the offering of WSR to the original Wii Sports, the first thing you notice is the number of sports available. WSR packs a total of 12 sports, 10 of which are new (Golf and Bowling reprise their role). In one night my friends and I enjoyed Swordplay, Table Tennis, Basketball, Canoeing, Cycling, Frisbee and Archery.

Each sport has more than one mode of play, with some being simultaneous multiplayer and some being sequential. It’s obvious that the simultaneous modes have more ‘party’ value so we stuck to those. After a few goes at each sport, we were still having a great time – with a group of 6 people (some casual gamers, others devoted), WSR had something on offer for everyone to enjoy which boosts its replay value that much more.

You can tell that the developers made this game with a focus on the fun rather than competition. The music is much more dynamic than the boring and repetitive chiming of the original Wii Sports; it does help in getting you into a fun mood.

Swordplay, though the most ‘violent’ of the sports, can be very relaxing when the players don’t turn it into a hack-fest. Speed Slice, a reaction time game, actually lowered my heart rate and made me feel zen like a samurai. However, you can turn WSR into a competition if you choose to make it; it is very clear though that the developers put a lot of effort to make WSR feel like an actual ‘resort’, right down to the Hawaiian shirts.

I found the most annoying part of WSR to be the need to click through Mii menus and control scheme menus (manual or auto, left-hand or right-hand) for every new sport you want to play. These selection menus were a lot more tedious than the simple MotionPlus re-calibration process which requires nothing more than a simple ‘put the Wii remote down’.

I just keep wondering: do some people care that much for their Mii to be on screen? I just want to have fun – I don’t care about my score/level/whatever. Why do I have to click through these damn menus every single time!? I got sick of it. Luckily WSR’s fun-factor outweighs these unavoidable pangs in the interface.

Other reviews have remarked that certain sports “don’t feel real” or are “shallow”; this point has been made quite frequently. In the end, it all comes down to personal taste. I really enjoyed Archery but my dad, though an archer in his earlier days, did not like its lack of sweat-breaking. Despite these clunks in the sports, I firmly believe anyone can find something they enjoy in WSR.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Frisbee Dog is awesome? Because it’s awesome.

Platform reviewed: Wii

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