Wii Sports Resort for Wii: MotionPlus, 12 Sports and Reviews

Wii Sports Resort is a 2009 sports collection for the Wii, the sequel to Wii Sports, and it needs the Wii MotionPlus accessory to run. Nintendo developed and published it, and Metacritic prints 80 out of 100.

Overview

Twelve sports are spread across Wuhu Island, a fictional tropical archipelago. Wikipedia lists swordplay, wakeboarding, frisbee, archery, basketball, table tennis, golf, bowling, power cruising, canoeing, cycling and air sports, the last covering skydiving and flying. Bowling and golf return from the first game, table tennis comes from Wii Play, and tennis, baseball and boxing are absent.

The island has a longer history than the game. A rough version appeared in an E3 2006 flying demo, and Shigeru Miyamoto told Satoru Iwata he had carried the idea of an island setting for over ten years. Wuhu later turns up in Mario Kart 7 and Wii Fit Plus.

How it plays

Everything is played by holding the Wii Remote like the real equipment, and in a few sports the Nunchuk joins in. In archery the remote is the bow and the Nunchuk pulls the string. MotionPlus gives one-to-one tracking, which is what lets table tennis players add spin by twisting the wrist or golfers curve the ball by rotating the remote. A start-up routine shows the strap screen and a MotionPlus test before the skydive to the island.

Sports with more than two participants allow turn-taking on a single remote. Some sports are solo, some have a two-player variant, and the cap is two or four, depending on the sport.

Two ideas were dropped along the way: fishing and a water slide were considered, and a kendama prototype was left out because it did not suit the resort theme.

Release and credits

Japan received it on 25 June 2009, Australia on 23 July, Europe on 24 July and North America on 26 July, with Metacritic listing the same US date and an E rating. Nintendo turned part of Times Square into a Wuhu beach on 23 July and let visitors play before launch. Katsuya Eguchi produced; Ryo Nagamatsu composed. Later Wii consoles shipped with both Wii Sports and this game.

Reception

Metacritic’s 80 out of 100 sits on 73 reviews. IGN gave 7.7 out of 10 and found the controls impressive, GameSpot 8.0, GameTrailers 8.6 and Edge 6. SPOnG’s Tim Smith awarded 90 percent. Kotaku’s Alex Spencer wrote that the island is relaxing in a way few games manage. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences nominated it for Family Game of the Year, and at the British Academy Games Awards it won Best Family and Social Game. Nintendo counted 33.14 million copies by March 2021, third among Wii titles.

Can you still play it?

You need the disc and a Wii Remote with MotionPlus; the accessory shipped with the original release. The disc runs on a Wii and in Wii Mode on a Wii U, where a Sensor Bar is required for most software.

As a disc release it was never sold through the Wii Shop Channel, so the 30 January 2019 closure changes nothing for this title.