12 "Sports"
Some sports have sub-genres that are an extension of the idea.
Swordplay, the 1 on 1 isn't that good, too many variables to make it plausible (always going to be a problem with 1 to 1 gameplay) swordfighting is actually difficult, the better modes are the Speed Slice and the Showdown. Showdown is a Dynasty Warriors type kill fest, Speed slice is a more technically interesting idea and certainly adds the the Japanese cultural fusion we are getting with this Wii Sports Resort, alot of Japanese influence to the game.
Wakeboarding, quite simple, but if you want to really have a proper go, quite challenging, like alot of these "Wii" prefixed games, there is usually a pretty intense actual game lurking beneath the amazingly retrained design. Essentially you tilt the Wii Remote to get speed and then punch yourself in the face to jump to get a preanimated "stunt" the levels get progressively more busy making stunt, jump and board position choices more difficult.
Frisbee(R), really freaking tough, really disarmingly presented, the Dog catch game is pretty full on to get any kinda score... the Frisbee golf is absolutely impossible and incredibly challenging, I just tried an 18hole and got 15 over par, its really hard, some of the holes are really really really hard... really hard. More practice needed. At least 3 holes you need to be bang on, or else its water hazard and start again.
Archery is great, also, again, really really tough to get a decent score, even in the beginner stage you can get done by the distance and wind... then it just goes nuts on the harder levels. Moving targets for one.
Basketball is weird, once you get a rhythm its quit easy, although I've not dug away at this one... curiously loads of nuanced detail to the environs and Mii, which could be said for the game all round, they are just about tipping the balance from intentionally approachable naffness to a slightly too detailed apologetic graphical style.
Table Tennis is brilliant, star of the show, exactly what you expect, a more nuanced Wii Sports Tennis, but with more insane spin, and I mean insane.
Golf I've not tried.
Bowling, obviously more control over speed and spin, before it felt like there was 3 speeds you could initiate, now it feels alot more nuanced (that word again)
Power Cruising, not played enough, but initially the controls are massively sensitive and if the rest of the game is anything to go by, IMPOSSIBLE to get any decent scores.
Canoeing, not played enough, seems insane though.
Cycling, is insane, a classic Olympic Games style 3 stamina gauge, you have to fap the nunchuk and remote to pedal and lean to lean, tricky courses to navigate and weird.
Air Sports, the flying around is chilled out pilot wings, the dog fight is a bit n64 in execution, but generally passable.
Overall, really really nuanced control and face punchingly hard, some games make the Wii Motion Plus worth while, some don't really need it, 50:50 in execution and delivery. Gonna be hitting up the Frisbee and the Golf a bit more I think and see how crushing the Power Cruising it (pretty crushing I expect).
Got hold of this too - really impressed
The island design is great, feels very Pilotwings-y in the way you become familiar with the island, and the different ways the game presents it. The resort idea works really well too, there are a lot of enjoyable five minute diversions all over the place, so you really do feel as if you are just tootling about on a holiday island.
Particularly enjoying frisbee and archery, and found the canoeing surprisingly fun. Bowling is very interesting, the controls are essentially the same but far more accurate, which actually makes it harder. I bet that would make competition between really skilled bowling types a lot more fun.
There are a lot of Pilotwings echoes all over the shop, what with sky diving and roaming around in a biplane, and the architecture of the island itself, as well as the general scale of things. Resort is a really subtle fusion of Pilotwings and Wii Sports.
Aside from the great atmosphere, and really entertaining mix of not particularly related sports, all of the control mechanisms are basically perfect. That is the real hook here. Every game has been design to perfection mechanically, so barring scores and unlocks, you are basically playing to perfect your own control skills. The amount of polish that has gone in to this is really enjoyable, it is a full on Nintendo game for sure. Hardcore/casual arguments here are completely meaningless, each game is immediately accessible, but the control and scoring schemes have enough depth to keep anyone wishing to dedicate themselves happy.
By presenting such a well implemented and refined set of overt play mechanics, Wii Sports and now Wii Sports Resort are perfect gateway experiences to video gaming.
I would bet that Sony and Microsoft dream of creating something as good as this.
So Cycling is perfectly fine, and again, if you wanted to actually succeed or improve its all there to dig into, its nothing more than a Mario & Sonic at the Olympics type event, only the steering (which might be helping you) takes it into interesting land. Oh and the navigating the contiguous environment is good fun.
Pumped some more time into Frisbee Golf, thats a perfect little game, really absorbing, again a few holes are all or nothing affairs, but because they implemented the "hole" as a cylinder to infinity it makes it all the more possible to play vs the Tiger Woods implementation which is more grounded in reality with a basket you have to hit with more accuracy. It turns out that Frisbee golf actually exists in the real world!
Also tried 3 holes on the Wii Sports Resort version of Golf, this appears to be alot easier because of the control, but also because they've fundamentally changed the underlying mechanics. Before if you "over swing" it would seemingly arbitrarily hook or slice the shot... now they are more confident with the motion sensing they've used the naturaly rotational drift from the swing to dictated hook or slice, it also appears to be impossible to over hit, so its generally alot nicer and more rewarding to control.
i've been hammering away at this for a few days now and love it.
the swordplay seems quite unpopular but is probably my favourite, the balance between timing, speed and angle of attack make for great gameplay, waggling like a freak wont get you very far, some of the later reversed showdown levels and duel opponents are pretty unforgiving. make sure that you dont have the sensor bar assist enabled, it really screws around with the sword location, otherwise, it appears to be perfect 1:1 correspondence.
there is something very zen about frisbee dog, i'm still yet to get a perfect score (100 on every target and balloon), but i've come pretty close. i prefer the frisbee golf to the conventional golf, i cant get ehough of it. i've spent a while messing around with the mechanics and you can do everything that you can do with a real frisbee.
archery is great too, the difficlulty levels are just right, wakeboarding seems pretty superficial, but maintaining a combo of 100 pointers can be excruciating on the obstacle courses. table tennis stands out as having real longevity, with learning how to move the player by tilting the wiimote with the bat in fron of your mii is crucial against later opponents, cant wait to try it 2 player.
the improvements on golf and bowling are great, my lazy but flawless technique from the original just doesnt cut it here. power cruising works really well and the airsports are good fun, even if the adrenaline factor on the flying is a little low compared to the other sports.
basketball is pretty poor, no real depth, but pretty tough, canoeing is tiring and challenging, whilst the cycling seems liek a chore, cant see me getting to superstar rating anytime soon.
as posted above, a carefully crafted product, accessible and deep enough to keep you trying to beat personal bests.
i have high hopes for the wm+, it would be great to see a fully fledged game that included some of these mechanisms, judging from some of the comments from nintendo i wouldnt be surprised to see similar swordplay, archery and frisbee/boomerang in the next zelda, so long as it doesnt compromise the nature of the game.
a must buy, great stuff.
edit: shame about the complete lack of online, leaderboards would have been nice, competitions and online golf/bowling/frisbee and archery would have been easily implemented, even if the lag would have nerfed the games with quicker reactions needed.