Introduction

Sliding into this game review like WIIIIIIIIII!!! Alright Wii need to move on from these overused puns. Welcome to my review of one of the video games I have the most memories of! Wii Sports is a simple game with 5 sports to play by yourself or with friends. Most of my memorable moments playing Wii Sports were with a friend or a few friends.

I have had this game for 10 years and have accomplished almost too much, but it’s still fun. What have I accomplished? Well, a couple platinum medals, 2000 skill points in tennis, and I’m at pro status in all sports… which doesn’t mean anything to me except for bowling but that’s alright.

The best thing about this game’s impact on my life is that it’s the subject of many jokes in my conversations with friends. So why’s this game so great? I thought you’d never ask…

Graphics
7/10

Wii Sports is for the Wii, so I’d say the graphics are good and not too basic… for the most part. I love how bright this game is! It makes me feel like I can still have a great day playing sports even when it’s raining or snowing outside. Baseball especially is such a summer vibe. I love seeing that digital sunlight especially when the ball is flying high in baseball!

The atmosphere of each sport is so fun. I love seeing the audience members (when they’re visible) and seeing the landscaping! These are the cleanest stadiums/arenas/alleys/whatever else I’ve ever seen. And they magically stay clean even when people are running around and whacking things and throwing things. Whichever Miis are mowing the grass for these places almost deserve a raise, but they also almost deserve to get fired because they keep mowing some grass and neglecting the rest. *stares at the golf hills in disappointment*

Now for what I really wanted to talk about… the weirdness of a lot of this game’s graphics. First of all, the Miis don’t have legs in most sports. But they SOMETIMES do in baseball. In boxing, they float and punch each other. These Miis either got hologram legs or legs that go invisible sometimes. It’s the funniest in baseball because they have legs when they are at bat, but they don’t have legs when they’re running to first base! They don’t have legs when they’re pitching! They don’t have legs when they’re in the outfield!! And before I stop talking about this… the catcher doesn’t have legs!! All this weirdness is why I feel the graphics deserve a 7.

Finally moving on to another subject.

Animations
8/10

One thing that makes this game feel like a good sports game is that the animations are smooth. I appreciate the way the tennis ball moves especially when I smack it really hard. With plenty of practice, it’s pretty easy for me to keep up with what’s going on in each sport because I can see it pretty clearly. And I really appreciate that when I have an extremely good moment in a game, I can sometimes see a replay that shows it from a different angle. Really makes bragging to my friends that much better.

I like that the animations in this game are usually nothing special. It would drive me nuts if there were too many special effects everywhere, but it’s a good balance with those in my opinion.

One issue I have with this game’s animation is most things having to do with the Miis. I am very pleased with how the Miis move in tennis, including the audience bouncing up and down. That makes me smile and laugh. I also like how the Miis move in boxing. Unfortunately, those are the only two sports where the Miis don’t bother me at all. Their movement is golf is pretty “meh”. In bowling, the Miis have phantom hands. Their shirt sleeves shouldn’t count as arms when they’re rolling the ball. If I was writing this at night, I might have weird dreams about those Miis. At least in bowling, when you roll the ball backwards, the Miis spin. That’s my favorite animation in the game by far!

Excuse me while I rant about the Miis’ animation in baseball. So… these people have legs when they’re not moving much. But they never run in the game. They bounce their way to victory everywhere. I’ve played Wii Sports for 10 years, and I still can’t get over the fact that the Miis bounce their way to the bases, bounce their way to the ball (sometimes unbelievably slowly) in the outfield, they bounce into home plate for pete’s sake… very disappointing. The inconsistency with the Miis’ legs in these sports drives me crazy. It isn’t a big problem I guess, and the rest of the animation in the game makes up for it so I won’t dock too many points for that.

The Miis are difficult to look at sometimes, but the game itself isn’t too difficult.

Difficulty
4/10

Once I got used to the controls in this game, it wasn’t that hard to make my way up the ranks in most sports. And I got this game when I was 10. I didn’t think the CPUs in tennis and boxing were overpowered, so I advanced in those sports quite quickly. In fact, I got to 2,000 skill points in tennis However, the baseball CPUs gave me a good challenge. It took me a long time to beat Sakura. Same with my friend who basically shares this game with me.

The training modes are usually not a giant pain in the butt, and I find them to be nice for when I want to play and relax more. Swing Control is the hardest thing in the entire Wii Sports game for me. But I was able to grind enough to get the gold medal in most other modes.

Speaking of grinding enough, that’s what these Miis are doing day in and day out from what I can tell.

Story
“Is this even worth rating?”/10

This game has no intro or anything like what Wii Sports Resort has, so there isn’t much to say. I rated it a 10 in the actual score section because it shouldn’t affect the rest of the game’s overall score.

If this game had a story, maybe it’d be something like this: Some buddies got together and decided they wanna grind all year to be the best at every sport. They committed to daily training, fitness tests, and plenty of sports action so they could then face each other and see who was REALLY the best.

In the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I gotta say about that.”

Depth
10/10

This game has kept me entertained for 10 years. Even though my skill levels in these sports/training modes are sometimes literally off the charts (not bragging though), I still can find more things to enjoy and improve on. This game has 5 sports, 15 training modes, and the fitness test that you can take once a day. To recap, the 5 sports are tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing. In each sport, you can “level up” by playing them a bunch of times.

You can get more skill points by either getting a really good score or winning against CPU characters. Once you get 1,000 skill points in a sport, you become a “Pro” in that sport. What does that mean? You can now join the NBA AND MLB… just kidding. It means something for bowling only. In bowling, it means that you get a special design on your ball. (It’s not really that special, but I think it’s special because I EARNED IT.) In every other sport, being a pro is just a status. That’s disappointing, but there’s still plenty to do in this game, so it’s alright.

There are 15 training modes; 3 for each sport. These are really neat because they have a medal system based on the amount of points or whatever you end up scoring. You move from bronze to silver to gold to platinum. After 10 years, I only have one platinum medal, and it’s for the Hitting Home Runs mode. That was insanely hard to get because I had to hit 10 out of 10 pitches hard and “outta here”. Despite racking up plenty of gold medals, the training modes are nice to come back to because there are so many strategies to try, and they’re cool to compete with friends in too. Even cooler than the regular sports are to play with friends, in my opinion.

Lastly, there’s the fitness test mode. You can take this test once a day. The game randomly chooses 3 training events for you to play and see how well you can do on the first try. The game gives you an age for your results afterwards. The younger you are, the better. I’ve gotten the best score of 20 many times over the years. It’s still not that easy for me.

With all that there is to do in this game, it’s no wonder it’s so addicting!

Addictiveness
8/10

This is the first video game I have ever owned. When I first played it, I played it a lot. Then one of my friends started getting obsessed with it. So we both played it a ton. Now, whenever he and I hang out, we still play this game a lot. The challenge, the variety of games, and the bonding we do keeps us coming back to this game. My friend and I don’t hang out much anymore since I am in college and he lives 2 hours away from me. However, this game has allowed for years of amazing memories. That’s one thing that keeps me coming back to this game when I play it by myself.

Another reason I come back to this game so much is that my skills have developed over the years, and I find so many things in this game very satisfying to accomplish. I still occasionally go for a higher score in one of the training modes, I still occasionally try to get a better golf score, and there are several other things in this game I like to take on again and again. Sometimes, I just enjoy playing it casually though. This game has hardly ever gotten old for me. The only reason I rated this an 8 is because I don't play this as much now.

One thing about this game that never gets old for me is the sound.

Sound Effects
10/10

One thing that amazes me about this game is the sound effects. My friend and I agree that it can feel like we’re really playing these sports. I love the crack of the baseball bat, the smack of the tennis racket, the knocking of the pins, and more. The sound effects make me feel like I can almost get a real sports experience even if I am at home a lot. Especially since some of those sound effects come in through my Wii Remote! That is unbelievable and amazing!!

This game is exciting enough with the sound effects, but it wouldn’t be complete without the music.

Music
10/10

What a vibe. Any day is perfect for Wii Sports because the music puts me in a good mood. The opening song is super upbeat and it gets me ready to exercise my arm (or more than that if I’m not playing golf). The menu music is relaxing, and I could just sit on that menu screen and fall asleep if I am tired enough. The golf game selection screen is so chill, and I love it. And I feel a rush of excitement when I hear that “you got a medal” celebration song in training mode.

Speaking of rush of excitement, I got one right now because this is the last section of the review.

Overall Rating
67/80 OR 83% -- a B

My rating system is a little more elaborate than vizzed’s, so I decided to add up the points that way. But yeah, this game is such a fun game that brings back good memories for me, so it was a joy to write a review about it. Thank you so much for reading this behemoth of a review! Enjoy the rest of your day/night!