Wii Sports Resort

Wii Sports Resort is a Wii sequel to the launch title Wii Sports. It comes packaged with the Wii MotionPlus accessory which allows the Wii Remote to capture more complex motions than before. For this particular game, it is a requirement. Twelve different events and twenty four modes are available in Wii Sports Resort (which is more than twice the number of the original). Within a month of its initial June 25th, 2009 release date (in Japan), Wii Sports Resort was released worldwide in Australia, Europe, and North America.

In Europe, the game was temporarily packaged with a black Wii, which also came with a Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Wii MotionPlus, and Wii Sports. All of the accessories matched the console. In America, Nintendo temporarily packaged the game with an extra Wii MotionPlus accessory and raised the price by $10.

Air Sports
The Air Sports games consists of Skydiving, Flyover, and Dogfight. The Skydiving portion of the game is the first game that the player will participate in, but ironically was the last one the developers created for the game. It's made as an introduction to Wuhu Island and as an introduction to the accessory the game comes with, the Wii MotionPlus. You'll contort your Mii by moving the Wii Remote around with Wii MotionPlus attached to it. Some have compared this portion of the game to a similar one featured in the Pilotwings titles. After jumping from the plane you'll come crashing down to Wuhu Island, but it'll take awhile until you arrive. In the meantime you'll be accompanied by a ton more skydivers who happen to by other Miis you've created or pre-created ones. The Miis will circulate around yours and by pointing towards them they'll start to link hands. In the end of the game you'll let your parachutes fly, thus ending the spectacular introduction to Wii Sports Resort and Wuhu Island. After playing this mode you can return to it and take pictures and aim for golden rings that float in the sky (which is another similarity to the Pilotwings game from the early nineties).

The second game featured in Air Sports is Island Flyover, which like Skydiving is a single player affair. You'll hold the Wii Remote as if you were grasping onto a paper airplane and control the plane by turning and twisting the remote. This mode is very similar to the technical demo present during Nintendo's E3 2006 showing that was supposed to be a Pilotwings revival. As you fly, you'll be able to locate landmarks on the island, each one with an icon nearby shaped like a circle with an I in it with a written log that gives you information about the landmark. There are a grand total of 80. After every ten you get, you unlock a specific thing. You can fly through these, and earn points that unlock more features to the game as you play. You can also unlock the ability to pop balloons that Miis on the island are holding with your plane's shooter.

The third game is Dogfight. It is a strictly 2-player game. It is much like Island Flyover, except for no I points, and no balloons except for the ones on the back of player 2's plane which you must shoot to win.

Archery
Aim with the Wii Remote and pull back with the nunchuck. After releasing your finger the bow will be released. The goal is to get in the center of the target. This is one of the few games that make use of both controllers. In the game, you'll hold the Wii Remote with your less dominant hand (for example, if you're right handed you'll hold the Wii Remote in your left). Because of this, it may be a challenge to get used to. You'll have to keep your hand completely still when you've aimed with the Wii Remote, and before you let loose you also have to consider the speed and direction that the wind is blowing. This even was confirmed during Nintendo's E3 2009 press conference, and was one of the games that was demonstrated.

In each of Archery's stages is a piece of food that can be seen far away, though finding it alone can be a challenge. When the player eventually finds the food item, they have the option of shooting it, though doing so will be very challenging. Hitting the piece of food will reward the player with quite a lot of points.

Archery was one of the first four games that the development studio planned to include in the game, and hoped to unveil it in time for E3 2008. Three other sports were demonstrated, though they weren't able to accurately create the slow motions that were required in archery in time for the event, so waited until next year's big event to reveal the game.

Basketball
In basketball, you try to acquire more points than your opponents by shooting upwards with the Wii Remote. There are two modes including 3-Point Contest, which supports 1-4 players, and Pickup Game, which supports 1-2 players. In 3-Point Contest your Mii stands behind the three point line and the player makes appropriate motions with the Wii Remote in order to try and get the basketball in the hoop. The player with the most points at the end of the round wins the game. Each round is timed. Pickup Game is a three on three basketball game. The player won't control each Mii with the joystick on the nunchuck, but rather the Mii will move automatically (similar to Wii Sports tennis). All the player has to do in Pickup Game is shoot, steal, pass, and block.

Bowling
The bowling mode is basically the same game that was featured in the original Wii Sports with added precision. The unlockable mini-games that were contained with in the original also come back, but this time you don't need to unlock them. One alteration to the game is the 100 pin mode. Instead of just trying to knock down 100 pins once, you can play an entire game where each round has you trying to knock down 100 pins. In this mode you can have a total score of 3,000.

Canoeing
This game uses the Wii Remote as a paddle. This mode contains Speed Challenge and VS.

Speed Challenge is a one to four player cooperative game. If playing with more than one player, all of the Miis will be in the same canoe and you'll have to reflect each others' movements in order to move faster and in the desired direction. In this mode, you'll be required to get to the goal at the end of the course in the set time limit. Obstacles will halt your progress if you run into them, as will an unorganized team if you're playing the multiplayer mode. After you complete the goal, the finish line will be moved a little farther back. Speed Challenge has three difficulty levels including easy, medium, and hard.

VS is a multiplayer only event. Two to four players can participate in this game, and each Mii will be in a separate canoe as opposed to Speed Challenge where everyone was in the same boat. In VS, each course has a set number of checkpoints. The goal of VS is to make it through more checkpoints than your opponent. This mode is not a split-screen affair; instead each player will be seeing the same screen. There are no stamps to collect in this mode due to the lack of a single player mode.

Cycling
In cycling you'll be pitted against thirty other people and race around the island. In this mode you'll move the Wii Remote and Nunchuck up and down, alternating between the two to simulate pedaling. You can steer where your cyclist is going by changing the direction of the Wii Remote. Going behind another cyclist and staying there for a short duration will cause your character to drift, which will make him or her go faster (such as in the Mario Kart series). Moving the two remotes too fast will cause your character to tire out.

In 3-level mode, you are pitted against 50 players.

Frisbee
In this game similar to Frolf, you will either toss your disc so that your dog can catch it, or play a full game of frisbee golf with eighteen holes. Before you toss your in-game frisbee, you'll have to aim it so that it'll fall in the circle. You can twist your arm so that it'll twist the disc in the game. Once the frisbee is unleashed, the dog will follow it. If the disc starts to fall in the circle, the dog will jump up and catch it. Interestingly, the dog featured in this game was the dog that would accompany you occasionally in the Wii game Wii Fit. This game was one of the three events that were revealed during Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference, while a year later Nintendo announced that a full frisbee golf game would also be contained within the title, similar to the mode featured in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (which also made use of Wii MotionPlus).

Golf
Golf was present in the original Wii Sports, though this game contains added MotionPlus functionality. The game offers a lot more strategy and more courses too. There are twelve holes in all - three of them are from the original Wii Sports, and nine of them are brand new to the game. The harder you swing the remote, the harder your Mii will hit the ball. The angle of the club (note: you can change the club type) will alter the direction in which you ball goes. As in the original game, players can practice their swing before they do the real thing, though the developers hope that they won't have to do it as much as they did in the original game due to the added MotionPlus functionality. Golf is a one to four player game, though each player will have to take turns. Players can be part of a team or can go free for all. When playing the single player mode, the player will not have to go against a computer controlled opponent.

Power Cruising
In this game you hold the Wii Remote and Nunchuck as if you were grasping the handles of a jetski. You perform the same motions as you would in a real jetski as well. In the game your goal is to get through the goals before time runs out. This is one of the few games that requires the use of the Nunchuck. You'll tilt the two controllers in order to go in the corresponding direction. The director of Wii Sports Resort, Katsuya Eguchi, was the man who also headed the Nintendo 64 video game Wave Race 64. In an interview he claimed that Power Cruiser is more expansive than the Nintendo 64 classic. When questioned in 2008 if there would ever be another Wave Race game, Shigeru Miyamoto explained that he felt the power cruiser game in Resort would appeal to a much broader audience.

Swordplay
Ever since the Wii Remote was first revealed, players have been wanted to simulate a real, 1:1 sword game, though were unable to because of the controller's inability to perform 1:1. With the Wii MotionPlus, however, the developers have managed to replicate it nearly flawlessly, and thus implemented a sword game in Wii Sports Resort. You'll play as one of your Mii characters and either play in the game modes Dual, Speed Slice, or Showdown. Duel is a 1 or 2 player game. When playing the single player mode, you'll fight against a computer controlled character. The fight will take place on a circular platform, and you'll go against an opponent attempting to hit him/her into the water below. There are three rounds in all, each with a set time limit. If there is no clear winner by the third round, you'll automatically have to participate in a Sudden Death match. Sudden Death takes place on a much smaller platform.

Speed Slice is a 1 or 2 player game. When playing the single player mode, you'll go against a computer controlled character. In this mode objects will be placed in front of your character and you'll then be required to slice in the appropriate motion listed in order to move on to the next object. When you slice in the right direction, the object will be split in two. The first person to slice the object first wins the round. In all, there are eighteen types of objects available.

Showdown is a single player game. There are 20 stages in this game that take place across Wuhu Island. In this mode, you'll be attacked by an abundance of Miis, all with plastic swords in their hands. At the lower left hand corner of the screen is your health bar. You can be attacked three times before you have to start the stage over again. As the game progresses, the opponents will become increasingly harder to overcome. Despite the fact that there will be multiple Miis on screen at once, they won't all attack you at the same time; rather, only one will attack your player, and once defeated another one will subsequently take its place.

Table Tennis
This game is similar to the Wii Sports tennis game and Wii Play's table tennis title, but with added Wii MotionPlus control. The onscreen Mii will automatically go towards the ping pong ball but it'll be the players job to hit it in the right direction so that it heads back to the player on the opposing side of the table. The mode was revealed prior to E3 2009 on Nintendo's Japanese website via a video that also showcased golf. While you're playing, spectators will watch in the background. A pool is stationed behind the table that serves no significant purpose.

When creating the title, members of the development team asked other employees who have been to tropical resorts if they play table tennis outdoors. Some recalled that they did in fact see some people playing table tennis outside, and thus were able to make the table tennis game outside opposed to putting it indoors. They placed it by a pool so that it retains the resort feel that they were aiming for. When asked why they didn't just include tennis again, they explained that they wanted to refrain from adding too many games from the original in the new title. They also said that more people are presumably familiar with table tennis than they are with tennis, and thus would result in more interested people.

Wakeboarding
In this mode you'll be pulled by a boat on the ocean, and hold the Wii Remote in its classic position (a la Super Paper Mario, Wario Land: The Shake Dimension). You can twist the Wii Remote left and right in order to go in that direction and move the controller in variety of directions to get points when lifted in the air. The game was first revealed at E3 in 2009.

Development
For development on the individual games, go to their respective section above.

The game was announced during Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference. The Wii MotionPlus device was announced a day earlier, which caused many people on the internet to speculate on which game the device would initially use. The development team was originally planning on calling the game Wii Sports 2 - Resort, though Nintendo of America suggested they shorten it to the more simpler Wii Sports Resort. The development team explained that calling it Wii Sports 2 would suggest that it's just more of the same and there's not much different, when in reality the Wii MotionPlus adds an unprecedented depth of the control. When one of the teams created the game's logo, the Wii Sports part of it was larger than the Resort section, but Shigeru Miyamoto said that it should be reversed, and that Resort should be emphasized more than Wii Sports.

After the press conference, the designers confirmed that they hope to have a total of 10 games in Wii Sports Resort. Game producer Katsuya Eguchi claimed during the event that the jet ski game would be more in-depth than the Nintendo 64 hit title Wave Race 64 - which he directed.

Launch campaign
In Europe, the game had a huge television campaign than ran for three months, a print campaign that was featured in print newspapers including The Daily Star, Metro and Shortlist, a full takeover of MSN's website and various other major video game sites, and a commercial that runs before the showing of the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie. Nintendo of Europe explained that they hoped this game to be the biggest for the Wii and the biggest launch of the year, and hoped to surpass giants such as Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit which were released in 2008.

In America, Nintendo held a pre-launch event in Times Square's Military Island in New York City. Nintendo explained in a press release that they were "building an island (Wuhu) on an island (Military) on an island (Manhattan)". They brought in 50 tons of sand, non-alcoholic drinks, a steel drum band (who occasionally played the theme to Super Mario Bros.), a reflection pool, a lounge area and demos of Wii Sports Resort on display. Various adverts were displayed not only in Military Island, but all around Times Square.

Reception
Wii Sports Resort has generally favorable reviews. Official Nintendo Magazine rewarded the game with a 94%, while Nintendo Power gave the game an 8.5/10. GameSpot gave the game an 8/10, stating that it's a "must-have party game", has "excellent, intricate controls", "lots of minigames", and is "accessible for all age groups". According to them, the down-points of the game were the lack of a lasting single player experience and the need for a Wii MotionPlus for each player. Giant Bomb gave the game a 5 out of 5 saying that Wii Sports Resort is "much more of what made you fall in love with the Wii in the first place".