EA Playground

The Nintendo Wii is rapidly becoming a shining example of how games can be simple fun and appeal to a wider audience of gamers and non-gamers alike. Good examples of games that tempt casual players include Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Wii Sports and Rayman Raving Rabbids. All these games rely on a glut of smaller mini- or micro-games to make the action fast, furious but exceedingly simple at the same time. EA has picked up on this and is rapidly putting the finishing touches on EA Playground, its own stab at casual fun, which is coming to the Wii and DS.

The theme is one of a nostalgic neighborhood playground nature. Games like dodgeball, tetherball and slot cars are the order of the day here. Unfortunately, we were only able to play a few rounds of dodgeball at the preview demonstration, but based on what we've seen it really seems like EA is shooting for a smaller number of games that are of much higher quality than those found in competing titles.


Joining in with three other players, the dodgeball mini-game was a great deal of fun. The game only uses the Wii remote for dodgeball, and while the controls are really simple, they are not easily mastered. Movement is achieved using the d-pad and flicking the controller left or right will make your avatar briefly dodge to one side, potentially avoiding an incoming hit. The B button allows you to catch a thrown ball, while hitting the A button causes you to power-throw at someone on the opposing team.

Shoving the Wii remote towards the screen makes your little guy or gal sprint fast, which is key in order to grab the dodgeballs first. The rules are just as expected. You're trying to nail the other team with your balls, while avoiding incoming fire. Last man standing wins. The experience was great fun. It's a shame that dodgeball was the only game on display, but we're expecting to see more soon.

EA Playground will be coming to both Wii and DS, and while there will be the usual obvious differences, there will be a similar set of gameplay modes in each version. Party play is where the four-player stuff happens, and there's a full single-player component too. Stickers and marbles are collectable objects which you'll be able to find, earn and trade in order to free up cool power-ups and special moves. EA Playground promises to offer many different locations to explore, but really, this is one of those titles that will be best enjoyed with multiple gamers participating.

EA Playground looks set to be a strong entry for EA into the Wii party game multiplayer genre. The game is scheduled to hit both Nintendo platforms in the fall of this year, and GameSpy will be bringing you more coverage over the coming weeks. It'll soon be time to hone those sharp reflexes, so warn your granny to start training right now.