Wii Sports Resort

Wii Sports Resort

Developed by Nintendo

Released in 2009. Sports game.

Interest Level: Rated E for Everyone

Curriculum ties: Physical education, sports

Booktalk Ideas: Sports of sorts without the shorts: Talk about how you can play sports without having to put on normal workout clothes or use other sports equipment.

Challenge Issues: None

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

With a variety of sports activities at your fingertips, everyone can find a game they’ll enjoy. Play by yourself, or with friends you can work as a team or battle it out as competitors.

About the Game:

Wii Sports Resort is made up or various sports related games and challenges including archery, Frisbee, golf, basketball, bicycling, swordplay, wakeboarding, table tennis, bowling, canoeing, parachuting and piloting. Many of these games can be played individually, against the computer, or with friends.

All of the individual sports games have their own challenges and use different processes to play. Games require the use of a Wii Remote, and may or may not require the Wii Nunchuk. For example, in Frisbee the player uses a Frisbee tossing motion with the Wii Remote, but doesn’t use the Nunchuk at all. For archery, the player holds the Wii Remote vertically like a bow, and pulls back the string by pulling back the Nunchuk. All of the games require some type of movement by the player but that movement can be done in a very limited space. That being said, when friends are playing together, they must all be in range of the Wii sensor, so depending on the sport and the size of the space, players may bump into each other.

Critical Evaluation:

The graphics in this game are very simple but clear. One of my favorite features is the customizable Wii Mii, which is the player’s game avatar. When playing with friends, having custom Miis make it easy to distinguish players. Like the general graphics of the game, the Mii avatars are very simple creations with limited detail, similar to 3D cartoon characters.

My main issue with the game was that sometimes when playing I would accidentally fall out of sensor range or get my Wii Remote disoriented which would make it difficult to play well. That being said, when it was working, it did work well, and that was the vast majority of the time.

When evaluating how closely the video game mimicked the activities in real life, the game fairly accurately gets the general motions and actions of games, but some are plainly more accurate than others. Archery seemed quite accurate, but the mechanics of playing basketball were somewhat confusing and difficult to get used to. For someone unfamiliar with videogames games like archery are perfect because of their simplicity, but basketball was much more complicated because rather than mostly relying on motions, it relied on a familiarity with using game controllers.

About the Company:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels.

Abandoning previous ventures in favor of toys in the 1960s, Nintendo then developed into a video game company in the 1970s, ultimately becoming one of the most influential in the industry and Japan's third most valuable listed company with a market value of over US$85 billion. Nintendo of America is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team.

-from Wikipedia.com company page-

Justification of Selection:

This is a great way to introduce teens to a variety of sports while they play in smaller areas and without sporting equipment. The only required equipment is the Wii and controllers. It’s also a great way for teens to work together on teams, or have a little friendly competition.