Wii Play: Difference between revisions
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==Reception== | ==Reception== | ||
''Wii Play'' received mixed reviews from critics,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/03/wii-play-becomes-first-bad-game-to-sell-10-million/ |title=Wii Play becomes first bad game to sell 10 million |first=Blake |last=Snow |website=[[Ars Technica]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast Digital]] |date=March 20, 2009 |access-date=November 11, 2017 |archive-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017015553/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/03/wii-play-becomes-first-bad-game-to-sell-10-million/ |url-status=live }}</ref> holding an aggregate score of 61.64% on [[GameRankings]]<ref name="GameRank"/> and 58/100 on [[Metacritic]].<ref name="Metacritic"/> | ''Wii Play'' received mixed reviews from critics,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/03/wii-play-becomes-first-bad-game-to-sell-10-million/ |title=Wii Play becomes first bad game to sell 10 million |first=Blake |last=Snow |website=[[Ars Technica]] |publisher=[[Condé Nast Digital]] |date=March 20, 2009 |access-date=November 11, 2017 |archive-date=October 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017015553/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/03/wii-play-becomes-first-bad-game-to-sell-10-million/ |url-status=live }}</ref> holding an aggregate score of 61.64% on [[GameRankings]]<ref name="GameRank"/> and 58/100 on [[Metacritic]].<ref name="Metacritic"/> | ||
Revision as of 14:16, 6 February 2024
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) |  December 2, 2006  December 8, 2006  December 7, 2006  February 12, 2007 |
| Platform(s) | Wii |
| Rating(s) | ESRB:  - EveryonePEGI:  - Ages 3+CERO:  - All ages |
| Input(s) | Wii Remote |
| Game ID | RHAE01 |
| Game chronology | |
| Previous game First game in series |
Next game Wii Play Motion → |
| On affiliated sites | |
 |
Walkthrough |
Wii Play also known as Hajimete no Wii (はじめてのWii) in Japan, roughly translating to "Your First Step to Wii", is a party game developed by Nintendo as a launch title for the Wii in Japan, Europe, and Australia. It was released in North America a few months after the Wii's release. The game contains nine minigames, all utilizing Miis. The games were designed to show off the various features of the Wii Remote. Wii Play was developed at the same time as Wii Sports, and is based on a collection of Wii demo games from E3 2006.
Although Wii Play received mixed reviews from critics, it was a commercial success, selling over 28 million copies worldwide,[1] which could be due to the game being bundled with a Wii Remote. The game retailed for $50 in the US, while a Wii Remote retailed for $40, meaning the game itself was essentially being sold for $10.
It is succeeded by Wii Play Motion.
Gameplay
Wii Play is a party game consisting of nine minigames that make use of the Wii Remote's several unique features. These games can either be played in single-player mode or in a two-player multiplayer versus mode in which each player's number of wins are recorded. Upon starting the game, only one of the featured minigames is accessible, but the other eight are systematically unlocked as the player tries each one. The player is able to use their own custom Mii avatars created through the Mii Channel, who appear in several of the included minigames. High scores are saved when playing in single-player mode, and achieving certain high scores awards the player with bronze, silver, gold and platinum medals for the respective game, along with a message sent to the Wii Message Board containing a short tip for that respective game.
Games
Initially, only the first game is unlocked. Completing a game once unlocks the next game.
| No. | Name | Icon | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shooting Range | 
| |
| 2 | Find Mii | 
| |
| 3 | Table Tennis | 
| |
| 4 | Pose Mii | 
| |
| 5 | Laser Hockey | 
| |
| 6 | Billiards | 
| |
| 7 | Fishing | 
| |
| 8 | Charge! | 
| |
| 9 | Tanks! | 
|
Development
Wii Play was one of several games that were developed as a part of Shigeru Miyamoto's "Wii Project", along with Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Wii Music. The project was a compilation of several technical demo exhibiting the capabilities of the then-upcoming Wii console and its controller, the Wii Remote. These prototypes took advantage of several of the Wii Remote's features; the controller was able to sense rotation, which was prominently used in Pose Mii and Laser Hockey, while the detection of depth movement was featured in Table Tennis, Fishing and Billiards. These tech demos were first publicly shown at the 2006 E3 convention alongside the games used in Wii Sports. A demo of the shooting range minigame titled Shooting, which was speculated by several people to be a sequel to Duck Hunt, was also presented during the 2006 Nintendo Fusion Tour.
Wii Play officially began development when Miyamoto decided that the demonstrational games would be fleshed out and released together for the console. The development team at Nintendo EAD was given around seven to eight months to develop the game, with Motoi Okamoto, who had previously worked on Pikmin and the touchscreen minigames included in Super Mario 64 DS, serving as the game's director. The demo games were put into two different categories; the sports-themed games were grouped together and bundled into Wii Sports, while the rest of the games which made use of the Wii Remote's pointer became Wii Play. The game was developed directly alongside Wii Sports, with the two games' development teams sharing several artists and programmers. As the games progressed further into development, more attention was put towards Sports and the team ultimately decided that the latter was the higher priority. Because of this, some of the demos shown off at E3 did not make it into the game due to time constraints. These unused demos later went on to inspire later games; for instance, the game Obstacle Course was later adapted into the Wii Fit game "Balance Bubble", whereas the design of the game Bird found its way into Nintendo Land as the Balloon Fight-inspired game "Balloon Trip Breeze". Wii Maestro, an orchestra-themed game demo, was planned to be included as one of the games, but the developers decided it would be more fitting as its own separate game and ultimately made it into Wii Music.
Wii Play was first publicly announced at a press conference held by Nintendo in Japan under the name Hajimete no Wii, where it was shown to be a compilation of the demo games shown off at E3. Nintendo announced that the game would be released in Japan on December 2, 2006, as a launch title for the system, and that it would also be bundled with a Wii Remote at its release. It was later made playable at the Nintendo World event in New York on September 14, 2006, where all nine games were presented, now much closer to their final versions than the demos at E3, and support for the Wii's Mii characters was officially revealed to be part of the game. Miyamoto wanted Play to be a pack-in game instead of Wii Sports, but then-president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé, objected on the grounds that Play would not provide a complete entry-level experience for the console.
Reception
Wii Play received mixed reviews from critics,[2] holding an aggregate score of 61.64% on GameRankings[3] and 58/100 on Metacritic.[4]
Common Sense Media gave the game 3 stars out of 5, concluding that the game "isn't as fun as Wii Sports."[5] The reviewers at Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game varying scores of 6.0, 4.5 and 5.0, stating that while "anybody can play it, including grandma,... [y]ou'll probably be bored in minutes".[6] gamesTM gave the game a more scathing reaction, scoring it 3/10 and stating that "Even the games that do work break down due to a combination of being extremely bland or too repetitive", and even that the strongest game, Shooting, "loses its charm as soon as you realise the targets follow a similar path every time you play".[7] Pete Metzger of Variety, who reviewed the game alongside Fuzion Frenzy 2 for the Xbox 360, was highly critical of the game, calling its controls "a step backwards" from the innovation presented in Wii Sports.[8] GamePro reviewer "The Grim Wiiper" called the nine included games "repetitive and mediocre," but believed that the game's included Wii Remote "makes the whole package much more compelling."[9] IGN Australia were more positive in their reaction, awarding the game 8.3/10, saying that it was "effectively being sold at A$10 on top of the cost of a wiimote" and that "as a training game, it succeeds completely".[10] Official Nintendo Magazine also praised the game and gave it 91%, describing the games as "surprisingly addictive" as well as citing the value of supplying an additional Wii Remote.[11]
Sales
Despite mixed reception, Wii Play was an immense commercial success,[12] frequently making it onto The NPD Group's video game sales charts throughout the 2000s after its release in North America.[12][13] Within two days of its release as a launch title in Japan, the game had sold 171,888 copies, making it the second best-selling title for the system behind Wii Sports.[14] In January 2007, Nintendo reported that Wii Play was one of 19 Wii titles that had surpassed sales of one million units.[15] The NPD Group reported that the game was the 2nd best-selling game of April 2007.[16] The game sold 293,000 units in June 2007, making it the 2nd best-selling game of the month.[17] It sold 1.08 million units in December 2007, and was the 2nd highest-selling game of 2007 behind Halo 3 with sales of 4.12 million units.[18] By February 2008, the game had sold 4.4 million copies, according to the NPD Group,[19] and by October of the same year the game managed to sell over 7.2 million copies.[20] The game sold 1.46 million copies in December 2008, making it the highest-selling game of the month.[21] Across all of 2008, the game managed to sell 5.28 million copies, making it the best-selling game of 2008.[22]
By March 2009, the game had sold 10 million copies in the US,[23] and in April of that same year Nintendo reported that the game had sold 2.7 million copies in Japan.[24] In May 2009, Nintendo reported that the game had sold 22.9 million units.[25] Wii Play has sold 28.02 million copies worldwide as of March 31, 2018 according to Nintendo, making it the fifth best-selling Wii game and the 14th best selling video game of all time.[26] Strong sales were largely attributed to the game's inclusion of an extra Wii Remote at the time of its release and its North American price of US$49.99 in comparison to a separate Wii Remote which cost $39.99 at the time, meaning that the game itself essentially costed $10.[27] Speaking of the game's strong sales, Nintendo of America vice president Cammie Dunaway noted that the game's sales figures, in combination with the 12.9 million individual Wii Remotes sold, "reinforces the growing 'social gaming' trend we have been seeing where friends and family use their Wii as a social hub."[23]
Wii Play had sold 18.4 million units worldwide by July 2009.[28] The game received a "Diamond" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association,[29] indicating sales of at least 1 million copies in the United Kingdom.[30] In Australia, the game sold over 900,000 units by July 2010.[31]
Gallery
The title screen
The main menu with no game selected
The main menu with Shooting Range selected
References
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/wii.html
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