Wii Sports Games: It's Time to Evolve Again

[raidersbball20]

The Wii needs some sports games. That balance board is a very advanced piece of equipment

[clevelandspiders]

The concept of using the balance board to provide for additional realism through reading another physical input is a good concept, but I'm not holding my breath. What disappointed me in my limited Wii experience was that you throw a curve ball with a button press, not with a wrist snap. (Of course, it's entirely possible that a button press is the only way _I_ could get a ball to break.) I'm pretty sure that there is some sort of accelerometer in the controller, or, if not, there could be.

Maybe the balance board could be designed so that if you don't step quickly enough while carrying the football, the board jumps up and knocks you on your butt. :-)

[PhillipMG]

You guys need to chillax. This is the first release. We all know that technology don't get better til the next round. Wait for it. I bet they will vastly improve the experience.

[goheat]

Quote: Originally Posted by CarryTheWeight

Some Wii sports titles aren't as bad as people think. Tiger Woods 09, despite a clunky putting interface, was a pretty fun game. PES2008 was extremely innovative last year and a blast to play (here's hoping 2009's the same). But for every two great sports titles on Wii, there's twenty-two worthless pieces of shovelware. 2K Sports extensively campaigned for NHL 2K9 this year on Wii and the final product was unlike anything their developers announced. It was not an experience that made me want to forget playing the 360 version...sure, its controls were fun but its audio/visual quality was simply ABYSMAL. I'm not expecting wonders with Wii's graphics, but at least give me something that holds up and doesn't make me want to turn on the 360. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros Brawl and The Conduit do it, so why not the average sports title on Wii? Perplexing... EA Sports is one of the guiltiest parties on Wii. Not only does it port its last-gen graphics, gameplay and physics engines over to Wii, but somewhere in-between, the graphical quality actually declines. NCAA Football 09 All-Play is the biggest culprit here, as its player models actually looked worse than past NCAA Football titles on PS2 and Xbox. Isn't the Wii hardware supposed to have equal or superior graphical quality over those systems? It's really inexcusable when NCAA Football 2005 is lightyears ahead of NCAA Football 09 All-Play. I mean, the game doesn't even have authentic stadiums (disc space is no issue since Wii Optical Discs hold as much as the Xbox 360 DVD-9's). Just because it uses a control scheme that emphasizes first-time players doesn't mean it needs a graphics scheme designed for people who haven't played video games since hearing "Separate Ways" play off a tape deck in the Journey arcade machine. Tiger Woods, Nintendo sports games and PES are the leaders of the pack on Wii. Why can't we get quality over quantity one of these days? It pains me to see that instead of 20 solid, fun and intuitive sports games, we get 200 lame pieces of shovelware destined to rot for years in the bargain bin at CVS. And don't tell me casual gamers buy all that stuff, because it's not true...I think if Wii gets a solid sports title, enough word of mouth will build (essentially what happened to PES2008).

I agree with you here, although I will say that Madden 09 for the Wii was actually leaps and bounds above NCAA 09 for the Wii, especially with All-Play turned off. Still, there is room for improvement. 2K Sports' MLB 2K9 had a great (IMO) pitching mechanic, but the lack of online and bland graphics didn't help. It's even worse that the new version apparently is lacking online yet again. No excuse.

And, as you say, PES 2008 showed how well the Wii can do sports game, if the developers put in the effort.

[zzyzx]

IMO, the Wii absolutely can be a good platform for *some* sports. Individual sports are probably a better bet than most team sports for two reasons: they don't need to push the Wii's processor to churn out huge #s of polygons while maintaining a solid frame rate, and these sports seem best-suited to make legitimate use of the controls. Tiger Woods is a good example. Tennis is another. The first Top Spin for Wii was a bit of a misfire, but next year's titles should be much improved with the new controller that gives closer to 1:1 motion control. Even skiing-type games might have potential.

Auto racing - not so promising. Too many "players" to animate, and not enough processing left over for physics.

Team sports centered around strategy and maneuvering can work - see PES. High-action team sports like football and hockey -- there I'm skeptical.

Baseball's somewhere in the middle. There's less going on (on the field) than in football or hockey, and 2K had some good ideas for pitching (the one area where Wii probably improved on 360). With a year's more experience, they might be able to do something more worthwhile.

edit: On the subject of NCAA Football 09 for Wii...you don't even need to make a detailed comparison between Wii and the original Xbox. The Wii obviously isn't *less* powerful than its predecessor. And when NCAA 09 Wii only looks half as good as NCAA 04/05 on Gamecube, you know EA basically crapped it out on a shoestring budget. Blame for that abysmal failure goes straight to EA.