Wii Sports Resort Review

With Christmas now come and gone, its fair to discuss some of the gifts we’ve given and received.  You’ll likely see a few of these over the next few months.  One of those that we gave to our kids was Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Sports Resort Review – Our Kids Impressions

When we were trying to figure out what gifts to give our kids, we were hoping to find something entertaining that would at least get them items that wouldn’t promote them getting some form of exercise, so naturally, we turned to the Wii as a possibility, as it was a large gift that we gave them for Christmas last year.  Sadly, its gotten less use than I would have expected, but several of the Wii fitness games have remained popular, and they do still break the it out sometimes to play.

When we asked them if they’d be interested in the game, they waffled pretty hard, and generally seemed rather disinterested in video games, in general.  We headed over to Amazon and pulled up a few of the videos and screenshots to gauge their interest.  Truth be told, they were a little lukewarm to the idea.  They seemed vaguely intrigued, but not “jump up and down” excited at the idea.

Because Christmas Day involves visiting both mine and my wife’s families, there generally isn’t much time for trying out new gifts that require being at home, so we didn’t do much with the Wii that day.  However, I’ve played it for at least an hour a day with the boys every day since, and they’re sitting in the living room playing it as we speak…

As you probably know, the Wii Sports Resort game requires the use of an add-on to the Wii remote, called the Wii Motion Plus, one of which was included in the box.  We ordered second to complete the set for our Wii remotes (we only have two).  This reduces fighting over the remotes.

There are a total of 12 modules in the game, which are divided up among the following categories:

• Swordplay
• Wakeboarding
• Frisbee
• Archery
• Bowling
• Golf
• Table Tennis
• Basketball
• Power Cruising
• Canoeing
• Cycling
• Air Sports

Within each module, there are a variety of different games that can be played.  Some of those require more physical activity than others.  For instance, the Air Sports module only requires the moving the remote to control the airplane.  While I can attest to the idea that it requires a great deal of coordination to play, there’s not much activity required, as it can be played by simply sitting in one place.

However, there are some modules that require a great deal of activity.  A few of those are Swordplay, Cycling, and Basketball.  My six year old and I were dueling at Swordplay last night and he was huffing and puffing so hard, you could be left thinking he was trying to sprint the last leg of a marathon.  Truth be told, I worked up quite a sweat as well.  We went at it hard for about 30 minutes before he decided he needed to take a break.

I still shudder somewhat at they expectation that they kids develop from playing these games.  My six year old is convinced that he’s an expert swordsman because he can win at Wii Swordplay.  In truth, he looks like he’s having quite the fit while playing, as there’s little skill involved, but he’s able to win a great deal of the time.  I’m seeing the same thing play out with Wii Basketball as I sit here and write this article.

Overall, Wii Sports Resort certainly meets the requirement of getting them up and moving, which of course, makes Mom and Dad happy.  The modules are a great deal of fun, too.  It’s probably not a huge surprise that the kids tend to play games like this more with Dad than they do with Mom, although two more Wii remotes may help remedy this situation.  If your kids like videogames, this is certainly a huge step up from the original Wii Sports.