Fils-Aime and I had been discussing the shorter hype cycles Nintendo has been using for games such as The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The Nintendo executive told me he hasn’t seen Nintendo’s short hype cycles hurting sales of the company’s games, noting that Wii Sports Resort sold almost two million copies since its July launch despite the company keeping quiet about most of the game’s details until the month before its launch. (The game had been shown a year before, but few details had been offered in the intervening 12 months.)

I mentioned to Fils-Aime that I’ve seen Kotaku readers lament that Nintendo’s short promotional cycles might be hurting smaller Wii games. The short strategy seemed to not offer much of a boost for lower-profile titles, such as Metriod Prime Trilogy, Fire Emblem or Battalion Wars, which haven’t sold close to the millions of a Wii Sports Resort. The complaint, I conveyed, was that Nintendo hadn’t tried to push those games.

“I’m not satisfied with the volumes that we do on a Fire Emblem, for example, or a Battalion Wars,” Fils-Aime responded. “These are high-quality games that I have challenged the team to think about: How do we up our marketing on these types of titles to do a more effective job?

“And I think you are going to see that more with a title like [2010 Wii shooter] Sin & Punishment 2, where it is much more targeted to the active gamer. It is a title that I believe we need to do a better job getting out in front of.”

Fils-Aime cited the company’s new Nintendo Week 12-minute weekly video shows as one way to get more information out.

Curious about other things Nintendo has been quiet about, I asked for an update on the MotionPlus add-on which launched in June, enjoyed some third-party support then but has only had one Nintendo-made game, July’s Wii Sports Resort, released for it since then. I asked: Is this the roll-out you guys planned?

“Our hope was that Red Steel 2 would have launched in this holiday season,” Fils-Aime said, referring to Ubisoft’s now-2010 first-person shooter/swordplay game. “That’s a title that we had always looked at to be a key part of the strategy to drive the installed base of Wii MotionPlus. Having said that, even without the benefit of that launch, we’ve sold over four million at this point in time. That’s a very strong start.”

Fils-Aime confirmed that Nintendo is developing games that use MotionPlus, but did not detail them.

And what of Nintendo’s next major add-on, the Vitality Sensor? The device, which reads biometric data from a person’s finger, debuted at E3 in June, but Nintendo has yet to explain the kinds of games or software the company will release with it.

No news on that yet, Fils-Aime said, offering only “E3 2010″ as a timeframe for more. “We will show off the Vitality Sensor with software [at the show].”

I asked: Would that include games?

“I’m not going to give you any more hints beyond that.”

I recently, briefly, tried the revised boxing game programmed into November’s Wii sequel EA Sports Active More Workouts. And I was chided, kindly, by the EA trainer showing me the game.

He said I was throwing my punches like a programmer.

I wasn’t jabbing and hooking, Wii Remote and Nunchuk in hands, with gusto. I was, I didn’t realise, just making short moves.

Just this past spring, different EA representatives had trained me out of the bad habits of shortening my Wii-playing gestures. They did this while demoing the extra-sensitive modes of EA’s latest tennis and Tiger Woods games. These modes proved how a Wii Remote enhanced with the Motion-Plus add-on, could detect the difference between a player who swung their arm fully and those who just flicked their wrist. The Wii Remote’s acceleration sensors could be fooled by those two types of motion. But the position-detection in the MotionPlus could not. It could not be tricked. It would recognise a wrist-flick into a chip shot in Tiger and reserve big drives for full-arm swings.

What I learned in the spring I must have un-learned for the fall.

With no MotionPlus engaged for EA Sports Active More Workouts, I was back to my cheating ways. My punches were short. Can we say I was just trying not to hurt anyone at a public event? Apparently my EA-public-demo punching style is also the fighting style of EA programmers. Presumably this is not because they are lazy but because it is easier to test and replay a fitness game by taking a motion shortcut than by knocking oneself out throughout the day.

The new EA fitness game doesn’t support the Wii add-on, but it does have a host of other features to distinguish it from its recent predecessor, June’s EA Sports Active.

It includes a six-week workout program and a more interactive fitness calendar. It includes core/ab workouts, something the first game omitted. It has an overall count of 35 new exercises. Yoga-stretching has been added as well, by popular demand, EA claims — though it does cost them the talking point from the first game that EA Sports Active is the sweat-inducing Western complement to the gentler strain of Wii Fit’s Eastern balance-based routine.

The new game has plenty to exercise the player who wants it. As proof, a public relations specialist working on the game answered Kotaku’s challenge and demonstrated the game’s new obstacle course mode. She ran (in place) until her avatar reached a lunge station. She lunged until she was prompted to run more. Then she hit another upper-body exercise. She finished, mildly winded.

There may well have been ways to cheat all the exercises I saw. But that’s how it goes with games and fitness — users are pulled by the gravity to find shortcuts, be they cheat codes or less-than-complete sit-ups.

The lack of MotionPlus support may make it harder for users of the new game to resist temptations to cut their moves short and cheat, but as with the use of all fitness products, the user would just be cheating themselves. Oh, this is how it is for all kinds of fitness training, right? You need to want it.

But if you’re sick of us telling you that—or you’d just prefer to hear it in the developer’s own words—check out Ubisoft’s new Red Steel 2 Insider video. You not only get the background technical explanation of why MotionPlus is a must, but some actual footage of sword-swinging gameplay.

Red Steel 2 is out sometime next year.

Starting October 12, the game will come packed with not one, but two MotionPlus accessories. Of course, you’ll be paying more for the pack—$US60—but $US10 for a second MotionPlus is a good deal.

Big week for Nintendo-related price issues, this!

Kotaku AU Note: We’ll let you know if Nintendo Australia announce the same deal.

Which is why this deal at Harvey Norman is so enticing.

Until August 30 you can score yourself a second MotionPlus add-on when you pick up either Wii Sports Resort or Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.

Both games are already priced competitively at $76 with one MotionPlus, but to get two for that price is something of a steal.

I wanted the technical answer, of course.

But first Jason VandenBerghe, a man who was soon to impress me with the fact that he lead the team that developed my favourite post-GoldenEye James Bond game, Everything or Nothing, gave me the marketing answer.

He adopted his marketing voice, which was higher than his normal tone, and accompanied by waving of arms and the wobbly body language of a dishonest man. The marketing answer was that it would make the game more amazing, more terrific, more awesome.

He straightened himself out and took the Wii Remote from my hand. I was about to get the technological answer.

This was all happening in the basement floor of a downtown hotel in New York, last week during a rainstorm that stabbed the sky with lightning and flipped my umbrella inside out. In from the storm and amid the Ubisoft holiday line-up, I was playing the early portion of Red Steel 2. It’s a cartoon-shaded first-person-shooter/sword-fighter. The opening bit had my character being dragged on his belly by a guy on a motorcycle. I shot free and was in a gunfight, pointing the MotionPlus at the TV running the game, feeling my hand movements match the arm and gun movements of the character in the first-person game.

“Without MotionPlus, I couldn’t do this,” he said with the Remote now in his hand and me stepped off to the side to observe. He pointed the Remote at the screen as if to shoot. Then he moved his arm, pointing the Remote toward the left side of the screen… then he turned it more until it wasn’t pointing at the TV any more.

Wii first-person-shooter owners know what VandenBerghe’s gesture would normally cause. The Wii sensor bar would lose track of the Wii Remote’s pointer, causing the game’s first-person camera to either keep turning uncontrollably, or the camera would stop. This would be a frustration for players who were just trying to turn and had turned a tad too much. Either way, the gamer would then have to point back at the screen to get the Remote noticed again.

When VandenBerghe moved his Remote away from the TV something different happened. The camera in the game did keep turning. But as VandenBerghe turned his hand and the Remote back to the TV, the camera swiveled back with him. MotionPlus had taken over for the Remote’s pointer. The Wii never lost track of its player.

MotionPlus had made these controls smarter. The swings to the side could even allow the developers to map a quick-turn.

This wasn’t marketing. Technically, that’s what MotionPlus added to the shooting of Red Steel 2. Otherwise, VandenBerghe said, no, MotionPlus was not essential for Red Steel’s shooting gameplay.

But remember, Red Steel 2 fans, the essence of the franchise is guns and swords.

MotionPlus is essential to the sword-fighting in the game, I was told. VandenBerghe has been on the project for a year and a half. He remembers riskily informing his bosses that the game had to use it. He remembers expecting MotionPlus to birth a lightsaber game at this E3 that would steal his game’s thunder. He remembers being shocked that no such game shows up. And he maintains that it would be pointless to make a game with sword-fighting without MotionPlus — unless, as with a No More Heroes, the intention wasn’t to emulate the feel of actually swinging a sword.

To sword-fight is to swing your arm. Vigorously. In real life or the game.

Red Steel 2’s sword combat involves big swings, short swings, blocks, combos. And without MotionPlus, Vandenberghe told me, it would have involved a six-to-10-frame lag between player motion and the action on the screen. That would be too slow to make the game worth making, he told me.

In Red Steel 2, the switch from gunplay to sword combat isn’t activated by a button. There’s no weapons toggle. The change is activated by the rapidity of arm movement. The gun is the game’s default, but swing your arm sharply and the sword comes out — and stays out until the Remote is leveled and shots are again ready to be fired.

I swung the virtual sword in the game. I almost had to wallop Vandenberghe and other people standing by to get some of the best strikes on the game’s enemies.

Vandenberghe told me that he keeps getting quoted as proclaiming himself to be the man who killed waggle. Kill waggle with this? These controls felt right.

The game was recently delayed to 2010, a move Vandenberghe said is designed to balance the quality of the adventure. When released, Red Steel 2 will be bundled with a MotionPlus.

Wii Sports Resort is Nintendo’s first-party showcase for the Wii Motion Plus, the controller add-on that adds 1::1 movement sensing to the Wii remote. Some consider the peripheral to be a fix for the Wii remote, adding in functionality that should have been there in the first place, but that’s neither here nor there. The important thing here is that up until now, we’ve really only had a couple of third-party sports titles we could use to test out the new device, and now we’ve got a dozen tiny doses of Nintendo-created goodness.

But how good is this Nintendo-created goodness? Should players immediately go out and buy three more Motion Plus adapters, or should they wait until something better comes along? The assembled game critics take a stab, shoot an arrow, and otherwise swing their Wii remote in a dramatic fashion at the question.

The Onion A.V. Club
The sequel to arguably the best freebie pack-in game in 20 years arrives bearing a $US50 price tag, 12 tropical-themed mini-games, and one Wii MotionPlus, an inch-long attachment for the Wii remote that purports to vanquish the pesky lag between player movement and onscreen movement. Cynics will say that the game features only 10 mini-games, since two of the games-Golf and Bowling-are do-overs from the original. Cynics will also say that this game is a Trojan horse designed to sell Wii MotionPlus attachments. Those cynics wouldn’t be wrong on either front.

Eurogamer
With 12 basic activity types rather than the first game’s five, the first indicator that something’s lacking comes when you spot a couple of familiar faces in the crowd – and not just in the form of the Mii Plaza residents you zip past while barrelling through the sky. Repeat performances from the original Wii Sports’ golf and bowling games are enough to suggest that maybe even Nintendo knows it’s packed the sequel with pretty distractions, but is lacking the big events to bind them all together.

CVG
We’ve had it for weeks. Are we bored of it yet? Absolutely not. On the contrary, we can’t wait to get the game home so we can smash our mates and mums over the heads with plastic sticks in Swordplay, ace them with our now-killer top spin in Table Tennis and slaughter them with our epic Archery skills. Those are easily the three best new games in Resort, so we’ll start here. Swordplay is the game we all imagined we’d be playing when we first saw the Wii Remote. It’s that Lightsaber game we all wanted, only without the Lightsabers.

Nintendo Life
There’s certainly no denying that Wii Motion Plus brings a much more realistic and accurate form of motion controls to the table and Wii Sports Resort makes great use of it from start to finish. Sure some of the games are better than others and you’ll have to occasionally re-calibrate the Wii Remote by placing it on a flat surface for a few seconds, but as a whole, the package features plenty of playability to go around. As a single-player experience, the game is solid and will provide you with plenty of hours of fun…But if you want to see what Wii Sports Resort is really all about, you need to round up some players to come over and have some real fun. Because as much fun as the original Wii Sports release was, Wii Sports Resort absolutely blows it away in terms of overall fun factor.

Giant Bomb
By offering 12 events and covering a variety of different styles, Nintendo has almost ensured that anyone who remotely liked anything about the original Wii Sports will find Wii Sports Resort to be a lot of fun. On top of that, it’s still just as accessible as the original was, making it a great choice if you’re looking for games to play with people who don’t play a lot of games. You know what? It doesn’t even need that layer of qualification. Wii Sports Resort is great.

Kotaku
With a dozen sports and a total of two dozen ways to play them, Wii Sports Resort packs in the play with mostly fun games. You’d think that Wii Sports and Wii Play would have exhausted the minigame catalog for the Wii, but these mostly new games are a worthwhile addition to anyone’s Wii. Even without the MotionPlus add-on, Wii Sports Resort is a must-have, must-play for anyone wanting to get the most out of their Nintendo console.

I like to move it, move it…

Screen Play editor Jason Hill asked me that very question to kick off today’s long-overdue return of Two-Player Mode. We examine every aspect of what motion control may mean for the industry, the three console makers and their audience of gamers. We’d like to hear what you think, too, so read our exchange and then have your say in the comments below.

From: Jason Hill
To: David Wildgoose
Subject: Is motion control the future of video games?

Hey David,

Sorry it’s been a while since we last chatted. Things have been flat out since E3. But I did want to explore your thoughts on E3’s big talking point, motion control.

We all know that motion-based control systems have been around for a long time. Microsoft released their Sidewinder Freestyle controller over a decade ago, then quickly shelved the idea because of a lack of interest. Sony later went on to enjoy fantastic success with their EyeToy range, particularly with the youngsters. And of course most recently and spectacularly, the Wii has captured the imagination of millions of people around the world with its novel motion-based magic wand.

It was no surprise to see Microsoft and Sony have now heavily invested in new motion control systems that will attempt to compete against the huge mass-market audience that have so embraced the Wii. But today I’d like to start by asking you a simple question: do you think there will be consumer demand for either the PlayStation Motion Controller or Microsoft’s Project Natal? Do you think Sony and Microsoft will be able to capture the imagination (and dollars) of the more casual gaming audience like Nintendo has done, and will hardcore gamers embrace the technology?

From: David Wildgoose
To: Jason Hill
Subject: Is motion control the future of video games?

Hey Jason,

It’s good to be back. And it’s good to have finally recovered from the stubborn cold I’ve suffered from ever since E3. After nine E3s, you’d think I’d be used to that by now… but apparently not. You’d also think I’d be used to seeing major console manufacturers slavishly copying each other’s successful products. But that’s not what happened.

Everyone may be in agreement that industry growth is constrained by the intimidating inaccessibilty of the control pad. Reaching not just the casual gaming audience, but the entire non-gaming population is the objective. The surprise is that all three console makers look set to tackle the problem from quite different angles. Nintendo has demonstrated its solution over the past three years. Yet, surprisingly, neither Sony nor Microsoft unveiled a blatant clone of the Wii controls.

Microsoft followed the controller problem through to its logical conclusion: no controller. It may seem a pedantic distinction, but Natal strikes me as less “game controller” and more “console interface”. Gamers won’t be tossing aside their trusty 360 pads to wave their arms through Halo 4. Natal won’t impact heavily on the genres we play today, but I can imagine motion, face and voice recognition enabling separate experiences not quite so grounded in gaming tradition.

Forget the silly minigames you saw at E3, the real potential of Natal was seen in Peter Molyneux’s Milo demo. Yet a word of caution there too: such a natural interface may sound great in theory. But if your grandad is flummoxed by the presence of a couple of sticks and a handful of buttons, what is he going to do when there is nothing to press at all?

Sony – perhaps more conservatively – seem to be evolving their Eyetoy technology to deliver enhanced fidelity. What was most telling to me was that, after exploring controller-free technology with Eyetoy, Sony has decided to change tack and reintroduce a handheld device. And I have to say, I’m inclined to their way of thinking.

Certainly as far as traditional games are concerned, I think you need that reassuring tactile sensation that only holding a physical controller provides – not to mention feedback features such as rumble. As a result, Sony appears more gaming focused than Microsoft and it’s easier to see their tech supplementing existing games while also making them more approachable to newcomers.

With the technology still a work-in-progress, both Sony and Microsoft have only showcased prototypes thus far. I’m interested to hear what you might think we’ll see from them in terms of actual launch software. The initial range of titles could make or break motion control on both platforms, so what should those first games be?

And where does Nintendo stand? They’re already out there in the market. They’ve just updated their motion control with MotionPlus. Is that enough? What’s their next move?

From: Jason Hill
To: David Wildgoose
Subject: Is motion control the future of video games?

In terms of software, I hope we see a wide variety, and I hope we are surprised by what we see. You would think that the possibilities for Natal in particular are only limited by developer’s imaginations. But there’s little doubt that dedicated (and ambitious) applications like Lionhead’s Milo and Kate will be rare and come almost exclusively from Sony and Microsoft. Third-party developers are going to be extremely cautious, just like during the launch phase of any new hardware platform. They need to see there’s a market first: that the hardware is going to sell. Which means that even though we might be able to expect plenty of games that offer Natal controls as an option, very few will make motion or voice control mandatory. Sports, music and racing games are obviously the best fit for motion, and hopefully they will make good use of the full body tracking, while voice controls will be particularly handy for strategy games. For the PlayStation Motion Controller, early on we’ll probably just see lots of clones of games that developers know have worked well on the Wii – which is Wii Sports, and not much else.

Clearly, developers and publishers both have very good reason to be cautious. As successful as the Wii hardware has been, there have been precious few good advertisements for motion control beyond Wii Sports. And Natal in particular is going to be very expensive technology, so it really is going to desperately need a “killer app” like Milo that can capture everyone’s imagination and convince them to splash out. Microsoft says the hardware isn’t final, but it uses a “groundbreaking” new sensor that combines a camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and a custom processor in conjunction with proprietary software. It’s not going to be cheap.

This is where Sony has been smart. Not only have they leveraged their experience from EyeToy, but they have come up with technology that is cheap to produce. This has been the key to Nintendo’s success and profitability. Like SingStar, Buzz and EyeToy in the past, you can imagine that the PlayStation Motion Controller hardware will be bundled with more casual-orientated software and be popular as a good-value gift. It’s also not going to be the be-all and end-all of the PlayStation 3 platform, just another experience to add to a long list of capabilities the machine offers for those that want it.

As for Nintendo, clearly the company remains in the box seat. It’s easy to be cynical about the Wii because of its limited number of standout games, but the reality is that the machine is in over 50 million homes around the world, and Wii Sports Resort will no doubt ensure that MotionPlus enjoys a healthy adoption rate and the Wii audience isn’t too fractured, even if MotionPlus is hardly the revolutionary improvement over the original Wii Remote that many expected. You have asked what’s the next move. I’d suggest it’s more of the same strategy that has brought them to where they are today. Harnessing cheap technology in (hopefully) innovative ways.

One thing I wanted to ask you is how strong your “BS detector” is and whether it went off at any stage during Microsoft or Sony’s presentations at E3. Sony’s press conference display was arguably stronger because it was all live demos, whereas much of Microsoft’s Natal technology was only shown in video form. I’ve since had a couple of developers laugh at the content that was shown, and suggest it was a long way from reality…

From: David Wildgoose
To: Jason Hill
Subject: Is motion control the future of video games?

As far as a BS detector is concerned, E3 attendees are only fooling themselves if they don’t have it equipped and activated at all times. Microsoft has admitted that much of what they showed of Natal was smoke and mirrors, save for the painting application and Breakout game they demonstrated live on stage. Sony was more up-front with its suite of prototypes, but I’m only slightly less reluctant to draw too many conclusions from such tech demos than I am from Microsoft’s mocked-up video.

Having said that, criticising either company for “faking it” seems unfair. After all, if Natal and Sony’s motion controller worked exactly as intended and were running a stack of interesting games right now, well… they’d be launching right now. But they’re not. They’re both launching at undisclosed dates and for undisclosed prices and in undisclosed hardware and/or software bundles. You’ll recall the infamous E3 2005 Killzone 2 pre-rendered trailer turned out to be surprisingly close to the mark, albeit nearly four years later.

Price will be a significant issue. You’re right, Natal looks expensive and I don’t believe the audience they’re chasing is terribly interested in expensive things. But I’m not sure Sony’s looks all that much cheaper – it does, after all, do many of the same things and requires two pieces of hardware. It’s way too early to be talking about it as a “good value gift”.

In this area, if Sony and Microsoft can learn anything from Nintendo, they surely should realise they have to bundle their motion control solutions with the console to achieve the necessary market penetration. Sony may have much experience with Eyetoy, Buzz and Singstar, but what third-party titles were there on PS2 that supported those accessories? And of course, the less said about the 360’s Live Vision camera in this regard, the better.

My hunch is that Wii Sports Resort will be massive, resulting in a viable market for MotionPlus-only games. Third-party publishers will support it in a big way, finally delivering on the pre-launch promise of the console. Give it a year or two and we’ll see it bundled with the console and the majority of Wii games unplayable with the original Wiimote.

Sony seem determined to prove that the PS3 can follow the same trajectory of the PS2, so I’ll bet on their motion controller ultimately remaining a niche propped up by a handful of impressive first-party games.

Meanwhile, Microsoft will re-launch the 360 late next year with Natal integration. However, it will be too expensive to reach a broad audience, initially only selling to the hardcore whose existing consoles have red-ringed.

Ultimately, Sony and Microsoft have a huge uphill struggle ahead of them. I really do think the future of motion control is already here.

Two-Player Mode is a regular column across Kotaku and Screen Play. Join in the discussion on both sites and let us know if you have an idea for a future discussion topic.

First there was Wii Sports and then came Wii Play, which sweetened the deal with a free remote. Now we have Wii Sports Resort which comes with a whole new technology and a chance to play Swordplay, Wakeboarding, Archery, Frisbee, Basketball, Power Cruising, Cycling Golf, Table Tennis, Bowling, Canoeing and Air Sports. Are the games a new enough experience to make Wii Sports Resort worth picking up or is this just a glorified accessory?

Loved
Sword and Archery: My two favourite games in the collection are Swordplay and Archery. In Swordplay you swing the remote like a sword, holding the B button to block in four directions, or swing in the same directions to attack. It sounds simple but can make for some pretty intense battles. The mode includes two-player duels, and a speed slicing contest, but my favourite is the showdown which pits a player against a horde of enemy Mii as you work your way along a map. The game includes ten maps, which can then be played in reverse.
While Archery only includes one mode, there are three difficulty settings. To play righties hold ther remote in their left hand and the nunchuk in the right and then pull back the nunchuk like it’s the string and release the Z button to fire. The object is to hit distant, sometimes moving or occasionally blocked targets. The sensitivity of the controls make the game equal parts difficult and rewarding.

Air Sports: Air Sports has you hold the remote like a paper airplay and guide it around to either control a skydiving Mii or a plane. This sport is broken down into three modes: Skydiving, Island Flyover and Dogfight. Skydiving is pretty straight forward, and a little dull. The Island Flyover essentially lets you practice flying a plane while collecting site-seeing points. The real fun in this mode is Dogfighting, where you and a friend fly around the island with balloons in tow, trying to blast away each others balloons away to win. The game is responsive enough to make this quite a bit of fun.

Table Tennis and Bowling: Both of these sports offer enough nuance to make competition fun.
In Table Tennis you play against a Wii-controlled Mii or a friend in the classic paddle game. The controls are fairly similar to the original Wii Sports Tennis, though this time around the game can sense the angle of your paddle, meaning you can put some pretty wicked spin on the ball.
Bowling is also like the original, though now with the addition of MotionPlus players will feel like they have a bit more control of the balls spin. The addition of an unlockable 100-pin game mode, adds just enough to Bowling to make it worth playing again.

Cycling: In Cycling your hold your remote and nunchuk as if they were the handles of a bike and then take turns sort of swinging them down and up as if they were pedals. To steer, you tilt both controllers back and forth. The sport includes one or two player road races against a pack of Mii and a head-to-head two-player race. The game is a bit simple, but when you factor in drafting, and the fact that you can tire out and have to pace yourself, it makes the game an amusing diversion.

Frisbee: I wasn’t a fan of Frisbee initially. To play you hold your remote like a Frisbee and snap it like your throwing the disc. Then a dog runs and catches it. The object is to make it as close to the glowing circle as possible. But, once you play Frisbee Dog you unlock Frisbee Golf which lets you play with up to four players on the game’s golf courses with three discs. Plenty of fun here and expect lots of practice to perfect your throw.

Basketball: Basketball was another game that didn’t really catch my interest initially. You play by swinging the remote down, pushing the B button and then pulling up the remote and making a shooting motion. The object is to sink as many baskets as you can in the time limit from the different positions. But, once you play the 3-point contest mode it unlocks the pick-up game. In the one to two-player pick-up game you control three Mii as you try to out dribble, pass and shoot. And yes, there are Mii slamdunks. The controls are fairly rudimentary, relying heavily on button pushes and motion (you don’t ever actually control the Mii’s movement) but it’s a ton of fun, and dunking on someone with a Mii is hilarious.

Hated
Constant Calibration: Constant may be a bit of an overstatement, but as you move between sports there will be plenty of times when the game tells you to put the controller on a flat surface for a few seconds so it can recalibrate. The game also has the option to pause at any time so you can do this manually. I think this calibration paranoia is more about being overly careful that the experience always delivers, but it can get annoying at times. I was interested to discover that there is an option in the game to let it also use the Sensor Bar to help refine the motion control detection.

Golf: This feels as phoned in as it likely was. The experience really hasn’t changed much at all from the one you find on Wii Sports. Sure, it can better detect hooks and slices, but no extra modes and no bells and whistles makes for a pretty mundane experience.

Water Sports: Most of Wii Sports Resort’s dozen games deliver, but Canoeing, Power Cruising and Wakeboarding all felt a bit wet behind the ears.
In Canoeing you use the remote as a paddle, working your way along a water course either against a clock or a friend. The mode felt more like a workout than fun.
Power Cruising should have been a no-brainer, but the controls are awkward, and the Mii version of a Jet Ski underpowered. Lacking any real opportunity to do tricks, the races are a bit boring.
Wakeboarding has you hold the remote sideways and use it to tilt your Mii back and forth across the water, hitting the wake of the boat pulling you to jump. With the tricks automated, the game boils down to keeping the remote level at the right time.

Single MotionPlus Add-On: The game ships with a single MotionPlus add-on, but to play any of those multiplayer games you’re going to need two or more MotionPlus controllers. Not a deal breaking, but a little disappointing.

MotionPlus works, and it works well. If nothing else, the games of Wii Sports Resort make that abundantly clear. This is the promise of the Wii remote finally delivered. Now lets see what third-party developers can do with it.

With a dozen sports and a total of two dozen ways to play them, Wii Sports Resort pack in the play with mostly fun games. You’d think that Wii Sports and Wii Play would have exhausted the minigame catalog for the Wii, but these mostly new games are a worthwhile addition to anyone’s Wii. Even without the MotionPlus add-on, Wii Sports is a must-have, must-play for anyone wanting to get the most out of their Nintendo console.

Wii Sports Resort was developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It was released on June 26 in North America and July 23 in Australia. Retails for US$49.99/AU$99.95. Played all games and game modes both alone and with my son.

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