Category : diversions

Unless you’re living in a cave somewhere, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the Nintendo Wii and it’s innovative Wii remote controllers (i.e. the Wiimote). The controllers connect wirelessly [1] to the main unit and have a gyroscope and accelerometers built into them. This means that, instead of just pressing buttons and moving a joystick around as with most game systems, with the Wii you can use the remote to effect a wide variety of real-life motions like throwing, swinging, striking, rowing, etc. Wii Sports, the game that comes with the console, was designed to illustrate what’s possible with the Wiimote and this “new paradigm” [2] in gaming. In my estimation Nintendo has absolutely succeeded in this regard. In particular, I totally love Wii Sports Tennis! What’s great about Tennis is the realism and subtlety in the way the Wiimote is used to control your player’s racquet. This is not a blunt a-swing-is-a-swing mechanism [3]. You actually have a lot of fine-grained control over the position, speed and angle of the racquet in three-dimensional space. As a result it’s possible to play a very nuanced game [4] in which you’re placing the ball exactly where you want it, putting topspin and backspin on the ball, and using lobs and slams to position your opponent exactly where you want them. In fact, in our house, the three primary Tennis players–Malaika, Nia and myself–have developed very different playing styles:

• Malaika (7) is a very formidable player whose biggest strength is great timing. As a result, she’s got a killer serve return. Unless I deliver a power serve and ace her, or a lob serve to throw off her timing she is able to totally shut me down by delivering a perfect return that I have never been able to return, if it’s even possible. And she is able to do this very consistently.
• Nia (13) on the other hand has an incredible front-court game. She can make amazing shots from the net, exhibiting both power and placement, that can quickly tire her opponents out.
• I tend to play more of a full court game, relying on both my front court and back court players to position the opponent and deliver the win.

All this makes Wii Sports Tennis a very compelling and engaging game. It remains my favorite way to spend my time on the Wii, whether I’m playing with the kids or playing against the unit. When you play against the computer in the Wii Sports games, you play on a ladder and the Wii automatically keeps track of your rating based on your performance against rated computer teams. When your rating reaches 1000 you get a PRO designation. I just turned PRO this afternoon, woohoo!!! I’m not sure if or how this will impact gameplay (do my players get a bit faster? harder hitting?) except for the fact that it does mean that I will be playing harder computer players. Based on what I’ve seen so far, the Wii’s PRO players are very good and boy are they FAST!! One thing I wonder is how Wii Sports Tennis plays and feels to someone who actually does play tennis. Any tennis players out there care to comment? [5] ====== [1] Via what has to be the best use of Bluetooth ever! [2] Does using quotes allow me to get away with saying “paradigm”? [3] The serve seems to be the most blunt. You can’t really miss the ball and it doesn’t seem like you can control placement of the ball very much. As long as you move the Wiimote, the ball seems to make it over the net, in roughly the same place. You do get to control ball speed based on how you hit the ball, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one of the PRO computer players deliver a serve with a nasty bit of spin on it. [4] Doing a bit of googling revealed a number of articles on Wii Tennis strategy. [5] I also found this well written article on the Wii user interface. The author is much more critical of the Tennis experience than I, and quotes a real-life tennis play who is disappointed by the Wii Tennis experience. Different strokes, I guess.