A Digital Camp for Antsy Athletes

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With all due respect to Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Bros. and World of Warcraft, there may not be a more important title in the young history of video games than Wii Sports.

It is almost impossible to overstate the vital role that Nintendo’s Wii console has played in rescuing video games from the cultural sidelines. Just when the other big console makers, Microsoft and Sony, redoubled their focus on core young male gamers, Nintendo came along with the Wii three years ago and reclaimed video games as accessible entertainment for everyone. All around the world, tens of millions of people who will never pick up an Xbox or PlayStation controller have had a good time with the Wii. (Nintendo has sold more than 50 million Wiis since the system’s debut.)

In the West, every Wii comes with Wii Sports, the cartoonlike collection of baseball, boxing, bowling, golf and tennis that has brilliantly occupied rainy weekends, family holidays and random weeknights at home too numerous to count.

But after three years it’s time for more than the same five sports. It’s time to whack your boyfriend over the head with a virtual sword (wielded in your living room in the form of the Wii’s motion-sensitive controller). It’s time for Frisbee, archery, wakeboarding and table tennis. It’s time for Wii Sports Resort, the new game and accessory from Nintendo, to be released in North America on Sunday.

Wii Sports Resort is basically a must-have for any Wii owner. Not only are most of the package’s dozen games fun, but Wii Sports Resort comes with Wii MotionPlus, a new add-on for the system’s wireless controller.

The MotionPlus is a small white cube, about an inch long on each side, that attaches easily to the Wii controller’s base. The Wii controller has always been admirably responsive to the user swinging and moving it, but the MotionPlus uses some fancy technology to make it even more accurate. In particular, the MotionPlus accessory makes the controller more sensitive to being twisted along its axis, which corresponds to turning one’s wrists over in a golf swing or angling a Frisbee to curve left or right.

MotionPlus works so well that it appears poised to become a de facto requirement for Wii owners. Other games that support MotionPlus include the excellent new Tiger Woods golf game from Electronic Arts and tennis games from E.A. and Sega. In the fall, big third-party games for the Wii including Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2 are also set to support MotionPlus.

Of course, nothing comes free. Wii Sports Resort with one MotionPlus included will carry a price tag of about $50, and each additional MotionPlus ( for your friends and family) will cost around $20.

But for the hours of hilarity and competition the package will provide, it seems worth it. Like the original Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort’s beauty is its breadth. With 12 activities, there should be something for everyone. Over the last few weeks I’ve spent anywhere from 45 minutes to many hours on each of the minigames, with friends and alone, and here are a few impressions of each.

SWORDPLAY Basic in its complexity but visceral in its appeal, at least as much so as punching your best friend in the face in the original Wii Sports boxing. Can definitely be an upper-body workout.

WAKEBOARDING You hold the controller horizontally like a tether and steer left and right, flipping off the boat’s wake to do tricks and score points. I found it diverting, but it could not hold my attention for hours.

FRISBEE Almost entirely intuitive and natural. You either play fetch with a digital dog or, far better, Frisbee golf on the same courses you can also attempt in “real” golf. With some practice you can put some nice curves on each throw.

ARCHERY A real gem. One of the only video games I have ever played that is about deep concentration and focus rather than the more frenetic sort of eye-hand coordination. Archery truly capitalizes on the sensitivity of the MotionPlus. The first time a buddy makes a loud noise as you release your arrow, you will not find it funny. Of course, your buddy will.

BASKETBALL The one Wii Sports Resort activity that didn’t work for me. Either Nintendo messed up the programming or I’m just horrible.

TABLE TENNIS Along with golf and archery, one of my favorites. It’s fast, and MotionPlus makes it phenomenally accurate and powerful in creating spins and aiming shots. Taking on all comers.

GOLF A genuine step up from the golf in the original Wii Sports. Obviously not as detailed as the Tiger Woods game, but if you can’t control your wrists you will not hit straight shots in Wii Sports Resort golf, as it should be.

BOWLING A remake of perhaps the most popular game in Wii Sports. As someone who has been doing a bit of real bowling these days, I can say that the new Resort bowling is certainly more accurate than its predecessor. And who can resist 100-pin bowling (maximum possible score 3,000)?

POWER CRUISING A bit too similar to wakeboarding, just without the tricks.

CANOEING Good for 20 minutes, little more, unless you’re just looking for shoulder exercise.

CYCLING Ingeniously designed, blending rhythm and precision with some deceptively deep strategy in terms of deciding how to manage your energy over a racecourse. When do you exert yourself for a boost of speed, and when do you conserve your breath?

AIR SPORTS Think how you hold a paper airplane. That’s how you control your plane here. The dogfighting wasn’t fabulous, but I have to admit I spent more than an hour just flying around Wii Sports Resort’s digital island.

In all, Wii Sports Resort is destined to keep far too many people indoors over the rest of this summer. I can’t say I’ll blame them.