Remember the good old days, when you could buy a gaming system and you'd get a great free game with it? Whether it was Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt with the original Nintendo Entertainment System, Tetris and the Game Boy, or the Super Mario All-Stars bundle for the SNES, Nintendo has had great success packaging games with their systems. Retailers have tried doing the same with other platform releases, but who wants to buy five launch titles on an unproven platform when you're sure to get stuck with a couple stinkers? Nintendo is making sure that you have something fun to take home and play this weekend with your new Wii, even if you don't get a chance to pick up a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. That game is Wii Sports, and it sets out to provide Wii owners with plenty of fun ways to get acquainted with the system.

The collection includes tennis, golf, baseball, bowling and boxing. The driving force behind the games' playability lies in their use of the Wii Remote's motion sensor capabilities. You'll import created avatars using the system's Mii manager, and playing the games as simplified versions of your own likeness (or that of a Hollywood celebrity) is great fun. Since other Mii characters on your Wii will appear in the game, in your batting lineups and at the bowling alley, for instance, you may consider making a few extras. We went ahead and made faithful recreations of Walter and The Jesus from The Big Lebowski for our GameSpy bowling team.


For the most part, controlling your Mii athletes is great fun. Swinging your tennis racquet is as easy as swinging the remote left and right for backhands and forehands, and simply swinging up and down to serve. The baseball game is a simplified version of the national pastime, as you only control batting and pitching, while the AI controls the little Mii fielders and baserunners. There are mini-games you can play in each sport as well, like batting practice, putting challenges, and even a bowling game that tasks you with making tricky shots around barriers in the lane, forcing you to become adept at putting just the right amount of spin on the ball.

The simplified controls may bother hardcore sports enthusiasts, but that's obviously not the target audience for this release. The casual gamer, or the non-gamer, won't want to be bothered with managing pitching rotations, or putting topspin on the ball when on the tennis courts. In tennis, for instance, the players automatically move towards the ball, keeping the essence of tennis intact, and challenging you to only time your backhand or forehand. The golf game boils down to just selecting your club, taking slope and wind speed into account when you line up your shots, and simply giving the controller the appropriate swing. It's not as feature-rich as other golf games, but it works well and remains plenty of fun.