Wii Comes to Europe: Event Report

Nintendo brings a bunch of Wii consoles across the seven seas and into Europe, for some fresh hands-on play time. England might not have brought the World Cup home, but who cares when Wii is in town?

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The games shown at the event were the E3 builds without any further development since included.

While initially Wii Tennis seemed to require simply "flicking" the Wii remote as the ball approached a player, with no buttons whatsoever required, further play revealed that, depending on how the Wii remote is flicked, the player is able to spin, lob or even backhand the ball. This can't be compared in anyway to Virtua Tennis or Top Spin though, as the lack of control over the players themselves removes much of the strategy found during in-depth tennis matches. Fortunately, the simplicity of the game allows both beginners and experts to find their own playing style and adapt to it. Wii Tennis was definitely the best game on show at the event.

Wii Baseball has players using the Wii remote as a bat and swinging as a ball approached to score some gratifying home runs. Again, no buttons required. The best feature of this title was the accuracy; the on-screen bat replicates the movements of the player very precisely. Even a slight shake of the remote caused the on screen bat to shake in a similar way. While easy to play in theory, Baseball required impeccable timing to hit the ball, which we didn't quite get until just before our time was up with the demo.

Wii Golf uses a few more buttons than its counterparts, with the control pad used to aim your shot and the A button, while swinging, to hit the ball. Without pressing the A button, the player can swing the Wii remote for practice shots in an attempt to see what type of power is required to get the ball where it should go. While overall not as fun as Tennis (particularly due to the lack of a multiplayer option), Will Golf still gave a very similar experience fitting the Wii sports pack very well.

The shooting demo on display had players hold the Wii remote just as you would a TV remote. Moving the Wii remote in this title would move a crosshair around the screen, the trigger beneath the control would fire. The demo started with a familiar duck hunt style level, before proceeding onto fast Frisbees flying across the screen. Although fun to play, the Wii remote did not line up directly with the crosshair as light guns do. Instead, due to using the motion to determine the position of the crosshair, the controller could be facing any direction with slight movements in either direction moving the crosshair. Also, the movements seemed overly sensitive, but we were told that the demo was in a very early stage and that a final version should include some kind of collaboration tool. This should allow the Wii to determine things like TV size, so it may respond similarly to a traditional light gun.

Wii Orchestra was very simple; oscillate the Wii remote up and down in time with the music, as a conductor does with their baton. Two songs were available; Zelda & Carmen. The onscreen characters will play the music in time with the baton. Moving the Wii remote too quickly without rhythm will cause the on screen characters to play their instruments extremely fast with the song finishing even quicker. Once you get the hang of it, the Wii remote can be moved from left to right while oscillating to create the perfect speed and rhythm for the song. Orchestra was enormously enjoyable, and really showed how the Wii could bring out entirely new experiences in gaming.

Expect more at the Leipzig Games Convention in August

Finally, Wario Ware Smooth Moves mixes the tried and tested Wario formula with the abilities of the Wii remote. Prior to each mini-game, a screen will instruct the user to hold the Wii remote in one of fifteen different ways. Sometimes on the palm of your hand (like a waiter holding a tray of drinks) to balance an object, other times like an umbrella to squat flies or like steering wheel to drive a car. Graphically the game seems very similar to the previous GameCube and DS versions, but the mini-games are as addictive as ever, with the new control feeling very natural.

The Wii is setting out to focus on the newness of the game experience on this European tour, and throughout this week the rest of the continent will be discovering that so far, it delivers. We'll have the next wave of hot updates on Wii from the Games Convention in August.

Sharan Dev Jain
Contributor, Kikizo Games

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Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ)
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Description	Dur.	Size	Details
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