Wii Play

With Laser Hockey, Duck Hunt, and Table Tennis on the roster, Wii Play is a far cry from macho exploits readily available on other consoles. But if you desire a collection of polite family games to accompany Wii Sports, Wii Play delivers in spades.

There are nine activities in Wii Play: Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Fishing, Duck Hunt, and Pool are self explanatory sporting themes. Find Mii, Pose Mii, Charge! and Tanks are less obvious. The term ‘Mii’ relates to DIY caricatures that everyone who owns a Wii can create as their in-game persona. Find Mii is a bit like Where’s Wally, having players to identify Mii folks lost in the crowds. Pose Mii is a simple shape-matching game in which Mii characters are arranged to match outlined poses. Charge! is a daft affair in which you race cows instead of horses. Tanks is a shooting game, with cute toy tanks trundling around assorted arenas.

The Wii remote is all you need, and one is included with the game to ensure that you can enjoy playing alongside at least one other person. Perhaps if we’d experienced Wii Play before Wii Sports we would have been equally taken aback by the results. Laser Hockey, especially, feels very much like playing Air Hockey at the arcade (minus the table to lean on). Table Tennis isn’t quite as involving as Wii Sports Tennis, but makes you giggle because it’s faster. Although we didn’t spend long with Pool to vouch for accuracy, pulling back to line up shots then shoving forward to strike the ball works very well. Duck Hunt, well it’s a shooting gallery that catches your competitive spirit unawares. Fishing, we imagine younger families massively enjoying the success of yanking out the biggest fish in the pond for huge points!

Wii Play should certainly keep the kids enthralled, and lure some adults too.

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