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Wii Sports

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Wii Sports
WS boxart.jpg
Wii Sports Nintendo Select.jpg
Wii Sports dvd case.jpg
Wii sports japanese.jpg
Details
Developer(s) Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Release date(s) Japan December 2, 2006
Europe December 8, 2006
Australia December 7, 2006
North America November 19, 2006
Platform(s) Wii
Rating(s) ESRB: ESRB E.png - Everyone
PEGI: PEGI 3.png - Ages 3+
CERO: CERO A.png - All ages
Input(s) Wii Remote
Wii Remote + Nunchuck
Game ID RSPE01
Game chronology
Previous game
First game in series
Next game
Wii Sports Resort
On affiliated sites
Strategy Wiki Logo.png Walkthrough
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This article is about the video game, and should not be confused with the series of the same name.

Wii Sports is a game released in 2006 as a launch title for the Wii console. It was also a pack-in title for the Wii in most regions, except for Japan. This is the first game ever in which Miis appears. It has sold nearly 83 million copies and is the fourth-best selling game of all time as of 2024, as well as Nintendo's best-selling game.[1]

The game shortly became a success and later got sequels as well as a few spin-offs, turning into a series with multiple games such as Wii Sports Resort, Nintendo Switch Sports and Pilotwings Resort. A remake of Wii Sports released in 2013 on the Wii U titled Wii Sports Club.

Gameplay

Wii Sports consists of multiple different modes, with the five main modes being Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. There is also a Training mode in which basic skills for each of the modes can be practiced. All modes use the Wii Remote's motion controls and Boxing uses the nunchuck attachment. The player uses the controller to perform actions just like in real-life sports, such as using the remote as a golf club, or a boxing glove. The rules of the games are simplified to be easier for first-time players, as well as younger players.

Every day, the player may attempt a Wii Fitness test, which has the player play a random 3 of the training modes in sequence. The player is then given a fitness age for that day based on their score. Some of the training modes are modified slightly, so that they last longer.

Miis are awarded skill points from winning games, but lose points from coming in last place, or sometimes 2nd or 3rd place as well. The amount of points won or lost depends on various factors such as the skill of the other players, the difficulty of the game, and the amount of skill the player already has. If the player possesses a large enough amount of skill more than the other players, no skill will be awarded when winning. Miis have separate amounts of skill for each of the five games. Skill is attributed to a Mii, however, skill is not transferred when a Mii is imported to another console.

If there is an insufficient amount of players in Tennis, Boxing, or Baseball, one of 60 CPU players will be used. Each CPU player has a unique but unchanging skill level. Players are matched with CPU players of a similar skill level. Once the player's skill level goes up, new CPU players will be played against. Golf and bowling can be played alone, as in real-life, with the object of the game then being to obtain a new personal best.

Wii Sports Club is a remake of Wii Sports where all five sports use the Wii MotionPlus accessory, and boxing makes the player use a second Wii Remote instead of a Nunchuk.

Sports

Name Screenshot Icons
Tennis WS Tennis Menu.png Tennis icon (1).png
Tennis icon (2).png
Tennis icon (3).png
Baseball WS Baseball Menu.png Baseball icon (1).png
Baseball icon (2).png
Baseball icon (3).png
Bowling WS Bowling Menu.png Bowling icon (1).png
Bowling icon (2).png
Bowling icon (3).png
Golf WS Golf Menu.png Golf icon (1).png
Golf icon (2).png
Golf icon (3).png
Boxing WS Boxing Menu.png Boxing icon (1).png
Boxing icon (2).png
Boxing icon (3).png

Development

With the release of the Wii, Nintendo decided to reach a new type of public, being people who do not play video games often, and to do so, needed both software and games that were accessible enough so that both old and new players could enjoy them. Wii Sports was then designed, with the game being a simple title meant to introduce the Wii and offer something for people who just started to play videogames and old time players, with sports being chosen as the main theme of the game due to being a familiar topic with most people. Rather than featuring realistic graphics however, the game was designed to have a simple art direction, matching the game itself designed to be very simple so that anybody could play the game and have a good time doing so, with the sports themselves being simplified a bit, with action like running towards the tennis ball in Tennis being automatically controlled.

A screenshot of what Wii Sports once looked like during development, featuring Mario instead of the Miis.

At one point in development, Super Mario characters were envisioned to replace the Miis (at the title referred to as Kokeshi Doll), but most of the staff preferred the Miis being used rather than the Mario character, leaving the idea to be scrapped.

The game used the Wii Remote's motion control in order to make the action that have to be done in game very intuitive, the player just having to mimic the real-life counterpart of the sports being played. Due to Nintendo not expecting players to purchase the Wii solely to play Wii Sports, they bundled the game with the console in all regions except Japan, believing that players would be more likely to play Wii Sports if the game was a pack-in title and feeling that players that enjoyed the game would increase its popularity by word of mouth. Initially, Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo President Satoru Iwata were hesitant to include the game as a pack-in title, but were convinced by Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé.

The first sport included in Wii Sports, being Tennis, was revealed a bit before the Electronic Entertainment Expo Media and Business Summit of 2006, under the name Wii Sports: Tennis, with Nintendo later announcing during a press conference that the game would be a part of a sports package for the Wii.

Iwata then introduced during the exposition this sports package as Wii Sports, stating that it would include tennis, golf, and baseball, the games being featured as both a video demonstration and an on-stage playable demo featuring Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aimé in a doubles tennis match against Shigeru Miyamoto and Scott Dyer, the latter one being a guest chosen via a contest.

Other sports games were on display at E3, all sharing a similar naming convention to Wii Sports: Tennis, being titled Wii Sports: Baseball, Wii Sports: Golf, as well as a cut sports titled Wii Sports: Airplane, the sports making it into the game having slight differences such as baseball only featuring a batting simulation.

At the Nintendo World event on September 14, 2006, Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed the five sports that would be included in Wii Sports and announced that the game would be included with every Wii console.


Pre-release and Unused content

Two unused sports have been found throughout the years depicting a Mii either piloting an airplane or using a jetpack, with both mini-games taking place on what appears to be a very early version of Wuhu Island, possibly having been thought to have sub-modes just like Air Sports in Wii Sports Resort.

The gameplay of both of those sports were, funnily enough, similar to the Pilotwings series, a series famous for having all of its games being launch titles, with Wii Sports also being a launch title, it is possible that the series may have had an influence during development, and with the third title in the Pilotwings series being Pilotwings Resort on the Nintendo 3DS, the two series were finally a little less than 5 years after the release of Wii Sports, finally linked together as part of the same universe.

Wii Sports: Airplane

A photo of Airplane being showcase at E3 2006

Wii Sports: Airplane (Also referred to as simply Airplane due to the method of naming used being the same as other sports being in the final games) was a sports titled shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo Media and Business Summit of 2006 (E3 2006) that did not went up to be included in the final version of Wii Sports.

The gameplay of the sports required the player to pass through rings within a time limit while piloting an airplane.

While not confirmed, it is very likely that Wii Sports: Airplane served as the basis for Air Sports, a sport introduced in the sequel to Wii Sports, being Wii Sports Resort.

Unnamed Jetpack Sports

A leaked screenshot of an unused Sports found during the Nintendo data leak

Amongst the various files leaked from a data hack released in 2020, a screenshot of a cut sports was found depicting a Mii using a jetpack made out of a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk similarly to the Rocket Belt from the Pilotwings series, seemingly flying around an early version of Wuhu Island that also was seen in the E3 2006 beta of Wii Sports: Airplane.

The idea, just like Wii Sports: Airplane, supposedly went up to become the basis of the Wii Sports and Pilotwings crossover, Pilotwings Resort.


Trivia

  • Wii Sports was the first game to be included with a Nintendo console at launch since the Virtual Boy's Mario's Tennis in 1995.
  • Shortly after the release of the game, there was an updated version of the game, 1.1.1. This update made some minor changes (such as adding a cutscene to baseball) and bugfixes to the game. Version 1.1.1 is far more common than version 1.0.
    • This makes version 1.0 the preferred version for fans because of the lack of the cutscene.
    • The easiest way to determine if a copy is version 1.0 or 1.1 is to see if the Wii Remote icons have Jackets on them, which they only do in 1.1

Gallery

See also: Category:Wii Sports images

Names in other languages

Language Name Meaning
Japanese Wiiスポーツ
Wii Supōtsu
Wii Sports

External links

References

Wii series games
Tomodachi series
Swapnote series
Other Mii-centered games
Non-Mii games for the Nintendo DS
Non-Mii games for the Wii
Non-Mii games for the Nintendo 3DS
Non-Mii games for the Wii U
Non-Mii games for the Nintendo Switch
Non-Mii games for other platforms