Mini but mighty

by ERIK LEIJON

It may have been a freebie pack-in given to every Wii customer upon launch, but the repercussions of the mini-game tech demo collection Wii Sports have been felt ever since. It was an instruction manual on what the Wii’s newfangled motion-sensing remote could do: from the different handgrips to the types of movements the controller could recognize. Smacking a baseball bat at a baddie in No More Heroes? Sending Bald Bull to the canvas with a haymaker? If Wii Sports drove the spikes, Wii Sports Resort (Wii/Nintendo, EAD) is here to lay down a new set of tracks: it’s a how-to guide for the console’s second generation.

Sports Resort comes with the new Wii MotionPlus peripheral. A small plastic attachment that fits on the bottom of your existing remote, the MotionPlus does an infinitely better job of recognizing your motions and makes it easy to recalibrate the controller when needed. A good chunk of Wii games prior to the MotionPlus required less than precise movements—a lazy wrist shake would suffice. Wii Sports Resort’s 12 addictive mini-games show off what the MotionPlus can do, and may just change your mind about the Wii in general.

Sports Resort has enough mini-games and concepts to fill an entire library of good titles and the use of the MotionPlus will change your view of motion sensor controls.

The mini-games are pretty self-explanatory, such as the frisbee/golf hybrid Frolf and the American Gladiator-esque Swordplay, although the precise, lifelike movements needed to succeed at these games is unlike anything seen on the console before. Throwing a frisbee is tough, despite what the John Abbott College student body might claim, and Wii Sports Resort doesn’t let players go with a simple flick of a wrist. In addition to being able to tilt the frisbee’s angle by nudging the remote only slightly, changing the release point and arm angle will have a dramatic effect on the trajectory of the disc.

Another brilliantly conceptualized event is Archery, which switches things up by having players aim with the remote and pull back the bow with the nunchuk. That simple target-shooting game was better than any first-person shooter I’ve played on the Wii thus far (with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption the only possible exception), as it combined the need for deadly accuracy with an extremely steady grip. Imagine if an ambitious developer takes the archery idea and transforms it into some brilliant Robin Hood adaptation, or a new Silent Scope? Wii Sports Resort will have you thinking about a bright, new future, although the mini-games presented here are already quite refined.

Based on Wii Sports Resort, I have devised a checklist of games I want on the Wii. A fully-licensed Frolf game is a must, as would be a new Wave Race (based on the Power Cruising game). Resort also proves a quality flight sim is possible (Pilotwings maybe?), and the Jumpshot throwing mini-game could be transferred to a fully-fledged basketball title. Thanks to Sports Resort, the future of the Wii is looking sunny.

Gears keep turnin’

If you’re like me, you enjoyed Gears of War 2 when it came out last fall, beat it in under 10 hours, played online for a few weekends, and then banished it to the pile. The online downloadable All Fronts Collection (X360/Microsoft, Epic) is an add-on package for the person who didn’t care about the add-ons when they originally came out. It includes all the previous expansion packs, seven new multiplayer maps, but most importantly, there’s a new single-player campaign chapter included. At 1600 points (25 bucks), it’s too pricey for casual fans