Tennis and Baseball
TENNIS
HEXUS.gaming Tournamnet : STEVEN WINS!
My first introduction to Wii Sports was a lively game of Tennis. This turned into an extremely competitive match of long baseline rallies where we were so focused that all you could hear was Nick's heavy breathing. There were some superbly executed winning shots, including top spin lobs, accurately placed volleys and (my favourite) the cross court back hand slice. The gameplay responded perfectly to the movements of the Wii-mote; spin or slice your shot by tilting the controller, lob the ball by moving the controller upwards or swing the remote quicker in order to apply more power.
Click for larger imageWe were physically moving left and right trying to anticipate where the next shot might land, but that was actually irrelevant, because the four players that grace the court move automatically into the required position. The fact that we were moving around like we were actually playing tennis was part and parcel of the Wii experience; we could quite easily have sat down to play, but it wouldn’t have had the same effect.
After a few games I started to get the measure of the court and the sensitivity of the Wii-mote and I was soon able to place shots down the baseline, lob the ball over the player at the net or pull off an unexpected drop shot, leaving Nick’s Mii-like character with his chin on the ground. ‘Tennis’ had simple controls and basic graphics but the controls felt responsive and the action was intense.
BASEBALL
HEXUS.gaming Tournament : NICK WINS!
In ‘Baseball’ you don’t control any of the player’s movement, only the batting and the pitching. The Wii-mote acts as your baseball bat; bring it up towards your shoulder and the bat moves to that position on the screen, bring it down, swing it forward and it reacts precisely to your movements. Pitching involves a standard throwing motion and the faster you move the Wii-mote forward the faster the ball arrives. Nick was reaching speeds of 153km/h, although I could barely manage over 100km/h and you could put curl on the ball by pressing the d-pad meaning that your timing needed to be precise in order to make the baseball connect with your bat.
Click for larger imageI was desperate to hit the ball out of the park and swung the Wii-mote with such force that I often lost total control of my body, spinning around and nearly breaking the TV in the process (we’d suggest that you move any breakable objects out of the way).
We’re not familiar with the technical intricacies of pitching and batting, but the controls and the way the bat moved precisely in conjunction with the movements of the Wii-mote was once again spot-on.
