Everyone’s talking about 3D Zelda this and 3D Zelda that, but everyone forgets that Nintendo just released another game for the Wii recently: Wii Play Motion. It’s like a sequel to Wii Play, except the games this time take advantage of the Wii Motion Plus controller, which offers more one to one movements. In fact, the game even comes packaged with a Wii Motion Plus controller, much like how the original Wii Play came with a regular Wii remote. Also just like the first Wii Play, this one has several mini-games that nearly anyone can jump right in and enjoy, so here’s a blog briefly describing each one of those games!

Cone Zone

This game makes me hungry for ice cream! In this one, you hold the remote upright, like you’re carrying an ice cream cone. Your Mii in the game holds a giant ice cream cone, and you must balance ice cream on it. In Scoop Mode, scoops of ice cream fall on your cone, and you have to tilt the remote to balance the ever-growing stack. If it falls, you lose, and the more ice cream you had stacked on your cone, the higher your score. Two players can go at it, too, just don’t let your stack hit your opponent’s!

The other mode is Swirl Mode. In this one, a constant stream of ice cream comes down as if a giant soft serve machine is in the air. You must gather it on your cone and swirl it around to keep it balanced. The better your swirls, the higher your score. Anyone who has worked at a Dairy Queen or other fast food place that serves soft serve dip cones should be able to do well at this game!

Veggie Guardin’

It may have a different name, but this is just essentially Whack-A-Mole. You get more precise movement with your virtual hammer with Wii Motion Plus, but it’s still Whack-A-Mole. You have three plates of veggies and if the moles pop out and you don’t hit them quickly, they’ll steal a plate. If they get all three plates, it’s Game Over. Sometimes a Mii will pop out and replenish your veggie supply, so you don’t want to whack them. The moles can be tricky and use Mii Masks and other movements like jumping to mess you up. There’s also a boss mole at the end of a few stages, but I don’t think I beat him. Guard Mode is the single player game, and VS. Mode has two people hitting moles with hammers. Recall Mode is like that old Simon game where you must mimic the order the moles pop out. Do it right and the last mole will feed a veggie to the grey mole in the background, and he’ll keep getting bigger and bigger!

I think there might be two very subtle classic Nintendo references in this mode. But it could also just be coincidental and I may just be looking into things too much. But anyway, the music they play in the background of this game sounds a LOT like the music they play in Kirby’s Epic Yarn when you turn into the mole tank digger. You know, the piano piece with the progressive scale bass line? The other reference is when you power up your hammer after hitting so many moles in a row. It turns into a giant squeaky hammer and the music sounds all 8-bit, like when you get the power-up hammer in Wrecking Crew and in SSB: Brawl.

Skip Skimmer

If you told me ten years ago I’d be playing a game about skipping stones, I would’ve have never believed you. But here we are, playing a game about a camping pastime. Point to pick your rock, and then hold the Wii remote flat and flick it like you are skipping a stone. Only problem I had with this game is they tell you to hold down B and release to throw, but anytime I try to do that, the game tells me I released too early. I would just not release B at all, and I would still throw the rock if I flicked hard enough.

Skip Mode is just you at a lake, trying to skip the rock as many times as you can. In real life, I’m lucky if I can get a rock to skip two or three times. But here, the highest I got was 30, so yeah, not very realistic. Sometimes the rocks you can pick aren’t realistic either, and include musical rocks with notes that play when you skip, and little UFOs! Score Mode puts out rings, obstacles, and targets to boost your skipping score, and there’s even an audience of Miis like it’s some kind of national skipping stone competition or something! Up to four can take turns skipping.

Trigger Twist

This one’s like a sequel to the shooting gallery game on the original Wii Play. The ‘twist’ here is that some of the targets may be off screen. When that’s the case, just hold the remote away from the screen, approximately where the target is, and the screen will swivel over where your remote is aimed so you can shoot it. It’s kind of hard to describe, but it is a good use of the Motion Plus technology.

There are three stages in this one. The UFO stage is similar to the grassy field area in the original Wii Play target game. Just as in that one, you’ll shoot targets, balloons, and UFOs. There’s even the Duck Hunt reference where you hear a dog barking and have to quickly shoot a duck for extra points.

In the Ninja stage, you sit in the middle of a dojo’s courtyard and must shoot ninjas with throwing stars. It’s tougher to shoot the fast running ninjas when they dash all around you, but luckily the ninjas are a little slow to attack. If you lose your three hearts, it’s Game Over, but you can shoot baskets to release hearts to replenish your supply. It was funny seeing my Mii character dressed as a ninja, too! Next time they want to put Ninja Cary in a game, I hope I get teamed up with Taki and Ayane. Don’t you think that would be a good ninja team up? Let me know in the comments section.

The last stage is on rails in the jungle and you must shoot dinosaurs. It’s a bit harder as the common raptors are quick to attack, and you must also take down long necks, stegosauruses, and a T-Rex boss! Shoot fruit from trees to unleash hearts to replenish your health. Kind of reminded me of Pokemon Snap, and how that would make an excellent Wii game. I guess this is how Wii Play Motion got the E-10 rating since you do shoot dinosaurs and ninjas, but they just fall over and disappear when shot. You can also play all three stages right in a row.

Pose Mii Plus

This is the other game that’s like a sequel to a mode in the original Wii Play. Here you have to quickly swivel the remote to fit your Mii character into a slot before time runs out. If you miss, you’ll crash and lose a heart, and miss three times and it’s Game Over. It kind of reminded me of that game show Hole in the Wall, or the Japanese version which many have referred to as Human Tetris. Two can play at the same time, too.

Jump Park

This one’s a clever little jumping 2-D platformer. Hold the Wii upright like you’re holding your standing Mii character on screen, and tilt it to aim the Mii in specific directions. The courses are lined with bouncy trampoline walls and floors, and you must tilt the remote to aim your jumps. In Gem Mode, you must collect a certain number of gems to unlock the next part of the stage. Do this enough times and a goal will appear. In Time Attack, you just have to make it to the goal as quickly as you can and not worry about collecting gems. I thought it was a pretty clever idea, and they could’ve made an entire game out of this.

Teeter Targets

It’s kind of like Breakout, except instead of moving the paddle from side to side; you just tilt the remote to tilt the paddle on screen. So you have to kind of juggle the ball and hit it hard at angles to hit the targets. It requires a bit of finesse, like hackey sack. I do like the toy woodblock graphics and sound motif. In Challenge Mode, you have a certain number of targets to hit in each stage in a given time. If you let the ball fall, you’ll lose time. VS. Mode is for two players. And Endless Mode has three stages to try to keep your ball in play as long as you can. One has you skipping the ball over a line, and the other two stages challenge you to keep the ball going as far horizontally or vertically as you can.

Spooky Search

Oh I love this one. Similar to the gun game where you must aim the remote away from the screen, in this one you’re on a ghost hunt. Silly ghosts escape from a group of Miis in a haunted house, and are supposedly all around you but are invisible. Use the remote like a radar and point it all around you. When the beeps from the remote get closer and louder, hit the B button to try and catch a ghost. When you do, flick the remote towards the screen to lure them into the ghost trap. Sometimes you’ll have to fight with them for a bit, and the Miis onscreen help by telling you where the ghosts are. Multiple players can hold remotes to team up to catch ghosts, too. It’s similar to Ghostbusters, and since that’s one of my all-time favorite movies, I really loved this game, too. And while I’m glad they’re making a Luigi’s Mansion 2 game on the DS, after playing this mini-game, I’m kind of disappointed there’s not a Luigi’s Mansion game on the Wii, as well.

Wind Runner

In this game, your Mii dons roller-blades and holds an umbrella on a windy race course. Hold the remote like an umbrella handle. When you hold it out front, the wind will catch the umbrella and you’ll move forward. Steer by moving left and right. If you want to jump or glide in the air, hold the remote up. In Solo Mode, you’ll need to make it to the end of the goal as quick as you can, but you must also collect gems along the way to boost your score. It kind of reminded me of a Sonic the Hedgehog bonus game. Or something you’d see in Kirby, since he uses umbrellas a lot, too. Two player can race each other in VS. Mode. And in Long Jump, you must go up a ramp and catch a lot of air to go as far as you can. Finally, race the courses in Time Attack without having to worry about collecting gems. Some of the later courses are actually pretty challenging, yet still fun.

Treasure Twirl

Remember the mini-game in Zelda: Phantom Hourglass where you must steer a hook underwater to gather treasure without hitting your hook too many times on obstacles? That’s what this one is like. Hold your Wii remote like a kite string holder and twist away from you to lower your Mii diver down. Steer by tilting left and right. If you want to go up, wind the remote toward you. Avoid obstacles like jellyfish, eels, and sharks, and try to grab all the treasure. It’s tough because you must also collect tanks of air, and if you are holding treasure and get hit, you’ll drop it! I couldn’t even get past the last stage. There may be a slight classic Nintendo reference in the Game & Watch Octopus game, as in the last stage, an octopus waits at the bottom and guards a treasure and will chase you down with tentacles! Two players can team up on this one.

Flutter Fly

Anyone remember the old PC game Bubble Ghost? You had to steer a ghost character and blow a bubble through mazes without letting it pop on anything. Well that’s kind of what this game is like. Use the remote like a fan and tilt it all around to blow a group of balloons through a maze. Avoid spikes and go through rings for points. If a crow comes, aim the remote at the screen to shoot it away. Two players can race each other, too.

Star Shuttle

The last game on here is the worst. I’m actually a little surprised Nintendo put it on here because it’s very difficult, and not very inviting for the casual crowd. You are in control of a spaceship, and must hit a target to build a space station. You can tilt the Wii remote around, but that won’t help much. Mostly you drive by activating various thrusters on your ship, represented by all the buttons on the Wii remote. So it’s a little confusing, too. You can go up, down, side to side, and backwards and forwards. Just don’t hit the target too fast or you’ll crash, or go out of bounds. It kind of reminded me of a 3-D Lunar Lander, and is only fun if you like parallel parking. Two can play this as well.

Wii Conclusions

And that’s all the games on here. Many people complain that Nintendo doesn’t cater to the hardcore gamer enough anymore, and rightfully so, as Nintendo could do better about that. But you have to admit, when Nintendo caters to the casual, they do it really well. That’s why I like their Wii series of games like Wii Sports, Wii Play, even Wii Music. A non-gamer could watch these games, say “I can DO this,” and join right in without any trouble. That’s why I wanted to write this blog to bring attention to Wii Play Motion, which seems to be getting ignored by many game review sites. Anyway, that’s all for now. Next time on my blog will be my “Cary’s Best Video Games of the Year SO FAR Awards Show!”

Tags: Game Reviews