Wii Sports Resort

I tried this out with some buddies last night, and I came away impressed. Not impressed enough to buy my own copy - this is very much a sequel to Wii Sports: while hermit gamers like myself will enjoy it in a party setting, the solo play is still not very compelling. But Wii Sports Resort is still a fantastic success, because everything Wii Sports did, Resort does better (well, except Baseball, which it doesn't do at all.)

Boxing has been supplanted by Swordplay, which is actually fun, even if you don't get to really slice anyone up. Tennis is replaced with its army cousin Table Tennis, and though the scale is smaller - it's strictly a two-player affair - Wii MotionPlus's addition of spin control makes it feel better regardless. Bowling and Golf are straight-up ported to Resort, and each one benefits from the gyro sensor, and has a slew of new modes that fans of the original will enjoy. (I might actually argue that the new Golf is less fun because it's more accurate, and apparently I have a wicked slice.)

The new games are then Archery, which is cool almost entirely because of the motions you do to shoot; Basketball, which is a little awkward but still pretty fun; Canoeing, which I didn't really care for but one of my friends is in love with; Cycling, which is like the one from Wii Fit but worse; Frisbee, including frolf; "Power Cruising," which is a sort-of lame jet-ski slalom; and Wakeboarding, which is like the stunts part of Wave Race without the racing bullshit. There's also an "Air Sports" category which includes stuff like dogfighting (dumbed down but fun), skydiving (??), and a mode where you fly around the island for five minutes (...). Each sport category has different modes like this, although they usually aren't quite that different.

Wii Sports Resort is Wii Sports, bigger and better. And even if I don't plan on owning a copy of my own, this game is still great for me - because when Nintendo sells a gajillion Wii MotionPlus attachments with it, someone will finally make a good lightsaber game. It'll happen. It's got to.

Progress: Gave Up -- Tried each game (even cycling, ugh)