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User Score
4.5

Presentation - 3.5
Gameplay - 6.5
Value - 6.5

Nintendo’s home console, the Wii, has earnered a reputation for being the video game console for the casuals – the non-gamers. The system launched in North America with pack-in success Wii Sports, which quickly made Nintendo’s new console the talk of the town throughout holiday ‘06. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Big N packed Wii consoles with a different title: Wii Play.
Finally, the company has brought Wii Play to North American Wii owners. If you aren’t familiar with what Wii Play is all about, don’t fret. The game is a compilation of nine different mini-games, each taking unique advantage of the Wii remote. While Wii Sports came with every Wii sold in the United States for free, Wii Play will run you $49.99, but it also comes with a Wii controller – a $39.99 value by itself. So, essentially, you are paying ten smackers for this game. The question, of course, is is it worth it?

Shooting Range - Playing this by yourself isn’t nearly as fun as playing with a friend. There’s a certain level of competiveness involved, and it makes Shooting Range pretty fun at times. Also, unlike Duck Hunt on NES, you are not pointing at the screen itself when shooting at targets but at the sensor bar, so the experience is perceptibly different.
Find Mii - Like most mini-games in Wii Play, Find Mii is considerably more entertaining when played with two people. The screen is often populated by gobs of Miis, creating a cluttered field of characters to sort through. The game quickly snowballs into frantic fun, as you rush to beat your opponent to finding the specified Miis. By itself, it is pretty boring, unfortunately. As a multiplayer game, however, it is fun despite its simplistic design.
Table Tennis - While it’s infinitely more fun to play with a friend, Table Tennis is still fairly enjoyable by yourself, playing against a CPU. The bottom line is this is a fun mini-game and one of our favorites in Wii Play. However, it is unfortunate that its lasting appeal will probably be curt for many.
Pose Mii - Pose Mii challenges you to match your on-screen Mii with other bubbled Miis. Words can’t accurately describe just what is going down on screen when you’re actually playing Pose Mii, as this is an odd and even queer effort by Nintendo. Using the Wii-mote, you move your Mii around screen, rotating it to try and match other falling bubbled-Miis.
Laser Hockey - Another favorite in Wii Play is Laser Hockey. This is Nintendo’s take on air hockey in case you didn’t guess. Using the Wii remote, you take turns smacking a puck back and forth across a table with lasers making up its borders. The game plays much like Table Tennis, but it manages to deliver a distinctly different experience, somehow.
Billiards - Playing pool with the Wii-mote is an un-mastered science, but at the same time, it’s a new one. We imagine some day that a developer will erect a control scheme and formula that surpasses the one in Billiards. Still, what’s here is decent. Pool buffs can get into the nitty gritty, taking their time to perfectly aim and shoot their ball across the table, and they’ll like it.
Fishing - Controlling this mini-game is more frustrating than any other game in Wii Play, and I wish I could remove the game from my copy. Okay, so, I'm being a little raffish. But we’d be surprised if anybody was genuinely impressed or entertained by Fishing in Wii Play. The control mechanics are sloppy, requiring you to hold your arm out for lengthy amounts of time if you ever want to actually catch a fish, which can be and is tiring.
Charge - the goal is to make it to the end of the track, navigating around obstacles in your way with a raging cow. Truth is, this mini-game isn’t all that bad. However, it’s too simple, and for many, it just won’t keep your attention for long at all. In order to increase the speed at which your cow runs, you must point the remote downwards, which doesn’t work particularly well. Thankfully, steering is better, but acceleration control is a notable mar in Charge’s design. Too bad.
Tanks - The name of the game sounds fun enough: it has the word “tanks” in it. You point at the screen with the Wii-mote, moving your tank forward. The goal is to be the first to shoot down all opposing tanks, which are more often than not located on the furthest side of the map, completely away from your spawn point. This isn’t the best game in Wii Play – at all – but it’s fun at times, even though it starts out very simple.

Overall, Wii Play is a fun, though incredibly basic collection of mini-games. In truth, the compilation feels more like a tech demo than anything else, which is disappointing considering its price point. Normally, I don’t consider the price of a game a factor in my reviews. Occasionally, however, the subject is of importance, and this is one of those cases. If Wii Play was available for ten bucks, we could much more easily recommend it. Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Billiards and even Find Mii are all fairly fun mini-games. But they aren’t worth $50.
If you’re looking for a Wii controller, on the other hand, this is a smart buy. You’ll get your Wii-mote, and on top of that, you’ll have some fun games that can be coupled with Wii Sports at your Wii multiplayer parties. Unfortunately, Wii Sports this is not. The Nintendo launch game is leaps and bounds more exciting and stimulating than Wii Play.