Wii Sports

[Ryo Saeba]

Played it a few moments ago and so far I'm really loving Tennis.
At first I thought it couldn't get any simpler, but after a few games I'm really digging the controls.

(I used a right-handed mii)
-to serve the ball as fast as possible you have to hit it when it's on the highest point (you see some smoke trail behind it, if done correctly)
-when the ball's in play you can control the angle of your shots by timing them
->forehand:
if you hit the ball early, you'll play it to the left side, if you wait a little longer you can play it to the right side
->backhand:
if you hit the ball early, you'll play it to the right side, if you wait a little longer you can play it to the left side
-you can give a little spin on the ball if you twist the wiimote while swinging your wiimote
-the speed of your shots is directly controlled by the speed of your swinging motion
-you can hit a lob if you swing the wiimote down-up

I'm still experimentating with the controls, and I'm sure I'll discover more possibilities, while playing. (I've a little over 500 points atm, still far away from the 1000 points pro-barrier).
As said, I'm quite amazed at what this little game has to offer, and it's really much deeper than I first thought, I'm slowly starting to hit aces and long-line winners and it's quite fun.

Of course I've also played a little bit of the other games, golf has to be my second favourite one atm, although I'm not quite sure about the controls either.
Is that me or is the manual a liitle useless?
It seems like they didn't want to scare the casual gamer and just didn't mention all the possibilities you have, or rather they want you to experiment yourself with the controls and find new possibilities to use the wiimote, it seems like part of the fun.
And I really suck at bowling (87 points, lol) I can't quite get the hang of it (mostly because the mii isn't exactly doing what I'm doing, instead he's swinging the ball himself and not 1:1 like in baseball, so most of the time the ball is just falling down or flying backwards^^) it also has a nasty little spin to the left.
So does anyone know where I can find a more complete guide to the controls? I'm surely missing out so many things oO

[Yoshimax]

Wow - I'd never touched a wii before today so this was a total eye-opener for me. Absolutely amazing - Played all of them bar the baseball and they're all so intuative and fun it's just ridiculous.

Bowling is amazing - Hammering the ball down the lane - I think twisting the wii-mote at the end of your "stroke" can put spin on the ball - it's definately possible.

Camster popped round for a look earlier (didn't preorder now he's kicking himself) and we played 2 player boxing - What a riot !!! Ducking & Dodging, jabbing combos and uppercuts, blocking & countering - Both of us were actuall knackered after a few rounds !!!

Anyway, back to it - Time to start Zelda I waited long enough it's gonna have to be composite city ><

[hudson]

Sounds great. Could someone describe how Golf is controlled? Much depth to it?

[Psycho Mantis]

Anyone knows where I can find real size Wii Sports box art for the NTSC U/C-version?

[Kongster]

Gave this a blast today and wow, I'm impressed!! Wii sports not only does a brilliant job of demonstrating the potential of the Wii controller, it's also great fun! And I'm playing against the CPU! Imagine how much more fun and a laugh it would be playing with your mates?!

My personal favourites so far are Tennis, boxing and golf. I haven't played baseball and bowling that much but I'll get round to it later.

[MattyD]

Boxing is amazing. My brother is absolutely mashing it right now, but then he is a doorman so he knows what he's doing. I'm not as good as he is but it's still incredible fun. I had to have by bro teach me to play golf though as I'm a sports bifter

[Jebus]

->forehand:
if you hit the ball early, you'll play it to the left side, if you wait a little longer you can play it to the right side
->backhand:
if you hit the ball early, you'll play it to the right side, if you wait a little longer you can play it to the left side
-you can give a little spin on the ball if you twist the wiimote while swinging your wiimote
-the speed of your shots is directly controlled by the speed of your swinging motion
-you can hit a lob if you swing the wiimote down-up

Why the hell isn't that in the bloody manual? The direction (or lack of) has been frustrating the hell out of me!!

[Mayhem]

It is (for the most part) in the US manual... the direction of shots is based on the timing and doing lobs and smashes.

[Silvergun X]

I had a go on this today round a friend's house, so i'll post the impressions i've come away with so far.

Tennis is my favourite game by far. With 3 of us playing, it was just immense fun making a stupid looking Mii then watching him faffing about missing balls in the replay, or even just staring at the ball with a huge grin on his face, doing nothing to even try hitting it. We almost pissed ourselves laughing, a real 'Had to be there' moment I reckon.

The actual game itself is very neat, too. No problems with direction or hitting the ball with me. Felt very easy and satisfying to play.

Baseball REALLY screwed me over. I can't get the hang of that at all. Hitting the ball isn't a problem, but almost every single ball I hit went foul ball and behind me, and i'm not quite sure what I was doing wrong. More time required on this one I think.

Golf was very fun once i'd got the hang of swinging. It seemed a bit hit and miss as to whether it would register the swing or not, but most of the time it worked very, very well. Quite hard to judge the power though, or so I found.

Have yet to play boxing or bowling yet.

[cutmymilk]

For baseball, I was having the same problem. The trick is not to swing it as a baseball bat but to hold it as the instructions say, then swing down and toward the TV with your hands. Hope that makes sense!

[Kongster]

I've been playing this some more this evening and I'm really enjoying it....apart from the bowling that is. I'm not really feeling it to be honest and it just doesn't do it for me. Still, that doesn't from detract from what is overall, a fun and enjoyable game.

[Yoshimax]

What I found awesome about the baseball was if you hold the wii-mote behind your head like you would a real baseball bat then tilt it up/down it is so accurately reflected onscreen - I reckon this is how you put the ball high/low.

The boxing 2 player is comedy gold - Camster & Me were sweating yesterday after a couple of games you could really do yourself some good playing it

Golf is great - it's not hard there are power indicators on the map so you know how hard you're aiming to hit the ball - with a bit of practice you can get really good and to be honest if the next golf game that's worthwhile hits all 3 formats and has this mechanic it'll be wii version all the way.

Bowling I love - The motion is so natural and we were managing to spin it and everything yesterday - once the strikes start coming you just can't stop.

Tennis is good - I can see why it'll be the most popular but I definately don't think it's the strongest game in the package - Having said that 4 player could be a right hoot.

[evert]

Tennis is thankfully a joy. Being a huge fan of tennis games, I was so apprehensive about this, I desperately wanted it to be good, but after reading so many negative things about it I was wary.

First impressions were iffy, sure, it felt "fun" swinging and seeing your efforts replicated on the screen...,.but I was more concerned with placement and power.

Fast forward a day, and I can safely say that the game is BRILLIANT!

As noted, the direction of shot seems to be mostly dependant on WHEN you swing. Down the line shots hit with real power seem to be the holy grail of THIS tennis game for me. Playing with my brother, we experimented more and more and by our last hour of play we were able to engage in rallies where we would be whacking the ball straight down the line at each other, accurately and with a lot of power. SO SATISFYING!

The spin aspect is so much fun to experiment with too. All I can say is just try EVERY ANGLE POSSIBLE, it is the only way to see just how many types of shot you can pul off. Also, try DIFFERENT SWING TYPES!!Dont just stick with one comfy swing, vary it, up, down , horizontal etc, with differing levels of power, you will see how many possible shots you have at your disposal.

Back to the down the line shot, it is a great shot to master, as in multiplayer at least, most seem to always hit crosscourt and are not expecting the down the line, so they prepare for a backhand when they should be preparing a forehand. I notice that if the Wii has your character set up for a backhand, you must put your remote in that position too even if you were hoping to hit an inside out forehand, because it will cause you shot to mess up.

A fantastic game, had my whole family addicted for hours unlike any game before.


PUTTING IN GOLF

This put me off the game at first, but a brother who plays golf said to focus more on the follow through rather than the back swing. This is also true for the power shots, by following through till you reach your shoulder you can swing with less power (to aviod going over the limit) but make up for with with the smooth follow through.

[Davy Boy]

Loving this at the moment, so much so that Zelda isn't getting a look in.

My whole family were round yesterday, had it set up in the Living Room. Everyone was having a go, never thought I'd see the day were both of my parents were playing games!!

[Jebus]

For people having problems with hitting properly in baseball I think I've cracked it. Swing as normal, but swing just a second later than you think you should. Hope that makes sense.

Basically yeah, just swing a nanosecond later than you normally would/think you should. It seems to almost always connect well for me then.