Golf
Golf in the original Wii Sports was, in the context of the sport being represented, a rough and tumble affair. You could get into the spirit of it and swing the Remote like an actual club, sure, but it was almost as easy to slouch in a chair and waggle your arm for the same effect. The technology was primitive, as were the visuals and mechanics, but it was immediately accessible and fun which, ultimately, was all that mattered.
Wii Sports Club: Golf, on the other hand, is the polar opposite in almost every way. It's accessible in the sense that anyone can pick up a Remote and copy what the players do on TV, and it has basic visuals by modern standards; yet the technology is not as primitive, and this new entry demands more of each player. It's possible, in theory, to dupe this one with waggle while lounging on the couch, but the likelihood is that your shots will ping off into the rough or out of bounds. No, this needs to actually be played like something resembling real golf.
It's impressive from that perspective. Not only does this version employ the Wii Remote Plus accuracy like the golf in Wii Sports Resort, but utilises the GamePad impressively, in what is possibly its stand-out application to date. The controller is placed on the floor and represents a virtual look onto the course, with your ball resting in the middle. You set your stance and, when ready, use B to centre your remote — at this stage a virtual golf club appears on the GamePad screen and it not only gauges power, but gives you a greater real-time visual indicator of the angle of the club head and, impressively, where you struck the ball. The effect is the game laying down the challenge to hone your technique, keep a straight wrist and play golf properly. In this reviewer's case that exposed some shoddy technique early on, but the literal interpretation of keeping your eye on the ball and then following it once hit — in this case focusing on the GamePad and naturally swinging into viewing the outcome on the TV — never got old.
In the case of everyone who played this for the purpose of this review, the outcome was the same — an initial round was typified by a struggling performance, before a second round showed the player naturally learning and adjusting their technique. This is impressive work from Nintendo, showing how its MotionPlus technology, aligned with the GamePad, can further enhance the experience. This feels like a more legitimate, accurate representation of golf than its Resort predecessor, so achieving a top score is a satisfying moment.
That accuracy is a strength and a weakness. The issue, perceivably, is that it'll make this all-but-impossible for some that are either not familiar and skilled with the technology, have no idea how to swing a golf club, or both. We did see — as mentioned earlier — one example online of a player tricking the title with short swings of the wrist (as evidenced by his Mii's motions) yet that seems very tough to do accurately. Yes, players can learn as they go and improve, but such is the nature of golf that this demands patience and persistence, and you may have been on the course for an hour or two before you start to master the intricacies of play. This is an issue in context, as Wii Sports is a brand representative of simple fun, whereas this is challenging, relatively complex fun.
Rather oddly, and the opposite of Nintendo's standard approach, this title doesn't offer much help, either. The tutorial is short and mainly teaches you how to interact with and use the GamePad screen, but tells you nothing about how to play golf — unlike the repetitive nature of tennis and bowling, this is a sport of nuance, which is actually represented to a startling degree. In fact, the game has little mercy at all, offering little help to those struggling — it even posts the same slightly snide 'Pro Tip' repeatedly that says, and we paraphrase but kid you not, "it's hard to play out of the rough, so just land on the fairway". Nintendo's gone from making golf super-easy and pinching you on the cheeks, to making it more realistic and telling you to get out and practice, with a hint of a growl and sneer. We love the challenge and clever technology in place, but wonder whether this game will simply be out of bounds for less experienced gamers; the lack of real assistance for these weaker players is a peculiar oversight.
If you do get into the swing of things, there is a decent amount to do. For starters there are two nine-hole courses. The Classic option recreates the original Wii Sports course, familiar to millions and charming in its slightly cleaner HD remodel. The new Lakeside course is apparently based on the good old 8-bit Golf days, and it shows in its ways; there are some devious holes here that test your skill and luck, and we'll admit to resorting to a few hit and hope strokes. These courses are tough — the top scores in Europe were just -5 and -6 for each at the time of writing, like we said, it's fairly realistic — and we're happy to finish level par or just under. With each round scores may improve, but the game giveth and it taketh away; sometimes the wind will support a bold shot, and other times it's punishing and cruel. For our part, we love the challenge.
Those courses can be played in full one-at-a-time, you can take on all 18 holes — in which case trail the GamePad charger wire to the controller, you'll need it — or you can play three holes of choice. Those are the options in local play, whereas online the formula is shaken up for shorter formats; you can play just one hole in a friendly that doesn't affect ranking, three competitive holes or nine competitive holes. Like in Tennis and Bowling you can filter searches, and in our experience we always found an online match within a couple of minutes. Due to the methodical, slow-paced nature of the sport an online game can take a little while, and in our matches opponents were often struggling to play the game properly — like we said, it's pretty difficult — while, in one case, they started messing about until they'd hit the +6 limit for each hole. Apart from the latter case the games were enjoyable enough and, as it's a turn-based affair, the online connection held up well. This experience is, we'd suggest, more suited to local play just for the sake of conversation, while we couldn't find a way to recalibrate our Remote Plus online, unlike in a local play game, which was irritating when it became erratic on one occasion.
There are also opportunities to practice in some excellent Skill Shaper games, even if they don't actually teach you how to play. Putter Madness gives you 10 balls and 10 holes to aim for on the green, and your points are based on the distance of each successful shot; it's a surprisingly strategic affair. Bingo Clubber tests your short-range pitching abilities, as you have ten shots onto the green from a variety of angles — the challenge is to successfully target areas of the scored grid on the green, completing a row of numbers for bonus points. Finally we have Target Shooter, which tests your driving ability; this challenges you to be quick and accurate with your drives as you aim to hit through a target and land near the centre of the green. All of these practice games are fun and useful for improving your range of shots.
Wii Sports Club: Golf is, taken as a whole, a peculiar beast. It looks unassuming and cute on the outside, yet has the challenge and complexity of a more realistic sim. We were going to complain that, with some challenging courses and greens to hit, we needed a button option to apply backspin, for example; we then realised we had to apply it ourselves with a shorter, more cutting style of swing. Impressive software and technology, again, but a million miles away from the cuddly generosity of Wii Sports.
Comments 55
I'll get it when it drops in price.
The disc version should have been bundled with a Wii remote plus. I would buy it in a heartbeat if that were the case. And believe it or not there are many Wii U owners without a remote plus.
I got it for £25. A reasonable price I think. I wouldn't have paid more than that for it though.
Nice to have Bowling with online. Tennis and golf too. Probably won't bother with Baseball or Boxing too much.
Adore Golf, Tennis, and Baseball. Far better than their original counterparts. Bowling is as solid as ever and Boxing is pretty similar, but both offer a nice change of pace. Overall an excellent upgrade and probably the best sports compilation on the market.
I'll eventually get all these. Wish you could voice chat with online play. I'd love to be talkin' some smack
No way I'm paying $39.99 for a HD remake with online. Maybe $20 price cut and then I'll think about it.
Don't know if I will ever get this. The Wii Sports ship sailed a long time ago for me.
I should have gotten only golf and bowling as they are the only games I/we play and enjoy. I should have trusted my instinct and didn't buy tennis. Now I ended up buying them all just because.
You should update your review of the Tennis. It's by far the best game and the lag and matching issues weren't there last time I played. Although it gave me tendinitis so maybe the score should stay low.
@Samurai_Goroh tell me about, I was kind of hoping Nintendo would come up with a deal to swap old style remotes with attachments for new ones. The most annoying bit for me is that Blockbuster was selling Wii U ones for £12 in its closing down sale and now it's gone
Holy click thru Batman - 7 pages? I realize it laid out nicely that way but please tell me this is an aberration and not going to the the standard going forward. I really hate clicking thru stories.
I've already complained enough about baseball having only 3 innings, that's just stupid. Especially b/c in golf you can choose the number of holes, and in tennis you can choose the sets. So why not baseball. Stupid. (Though if real life baseball only had 3 innings maybe Tanaka would still be pitching and not on the DL.)
Also, not only is the Gamepad hardly used, you NEED to have a Wiimote turned on JUST to access the main menu. Why can't I at least look around the main screen suing the Gamepad while I decide what sport I want to play?
@Ryno may be right, this shipped may have sailed, and as @Samurai_Goroh said this game should be shipped w/ a WiimotePlus, it's NECESSARY for the game, no if ands or buts. And $40 for a game that came free w/ the $250 Wii is going to be a hard sell on a system that isn't selling. I think it's worth it for online and HD, BUT, capitalized BUT, online i sonly worth it for me if I have friends and family to play w/, and we don't know a single other friends or family who own a Wii U.
They should bundle this w/ 2 Wiimotes and Wii U for $299. (I think Japan had a similar family bundle a while back.) That may be a $420 MSRP value, but Wiimotes are 7 years old, do they still need to be $40 each? Even the Plus are several years old, $20 tops.
Japan bundle w/ 1 Wiimote:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/02/nintendo_releasing_a_wii_sports_club_wii_u_hardware_bundle_in_japan
Some of these need a little updating. For example, it says that Golf has two courses when there are three: the Resort course was added in later.
@rjejr They should at the very least have a warning in the front cover: "Wii Remote Plus required" like the N64 games that required the Expansion Pack did. It's not that explicit at all for the uninformed consumer, who might see the box art and think that at the very least his old (non-Plus) Wiimotes will work.
i only really want baseball and golf, but baseball is packages with boxing on the e-shop
It's a bit annoying that the digital version is more expensive than the disc, there's no discounts on offer and owning any of the games means that you have to download all 5. I might get the disc from Play Asia for £22...
Off topic but I noticed Project Cars is up for pre-order from game and is £15 cheaper on Wii U... hope that doesn't mean it is missing anything other than graphically.
@Savino yes to Resort! Amiibo, integration please.
Also the sad thing is that if you don't have a Wii Remote Plus, then you can't even play this.
Oh the irony: the ones I'm most interested in are precisely Tennis and Boxing.
I'll get it eventually, but I'm waiting for a good deal.
Also not keen on a 7 page review, a minor quibble though, I appreciate the overall review, thanks!
Have gone download only recently, galling to see the disk cheaper...
I might just make Tennis the 2nd purchase on my WiiU (after MK8 earlier this week). I have to give Pikmin 3 a try though first, and find a way to deal with the non-invertible camera in WWHD =(
Tennis was so cool, esp. back then the day of the Wii release
The most I would pay for this game is $10. You gotta be kidding me, right? Make a real baseball game with online play where I have to use a motion plus to swing and we can start talking. Same with golf, same with bowling. Get rid of boxing.
@Savino I second this.
Wow, you guys are willing to shell out 50-60 bucks for WW HD and you think Wii Sports HD worth only 10-20 bucks? Sure they are different games/genre but come on. If I'm Nintendo, I wouldn't have bothered for a remake if it'll only cost that less. 40 seems right. And some of you even paid less.
Bought the Tennis Club Pass in November from Gamestop for $4.99 and then completed the digital version buying the remaining three Club Passes two weeks back directly from the eShop for $29.97.
Factoring the 20% off eShop cards from Best Buy and the 10% back from the Deluxe Digital Promotion, the complete digital version cost me around $25 + tax. Decent deal.
Had I not bought the Tennis Club Pass last year I probably would have bought the physical version of Sports Club. I'm happy with my digital version, though.
They DO need to update and patch the issues with Boxing, though. Motions aren't registering correctly for whatever weird reason...
Baseball with the gamepad is a revelation, MUCH better than the original. So, so good!
Tennis is MUCH more competitive w/Motion+, but not as accessible as the original when it was just timing. It's not nearly as good a party game as the original, but it's better for long-term players.
Golf is Tennis x11! Way too hard for any casual player! No party play whatsoever! Rewards players who play it A LOT! Rewards them a LOT!
Bowling is essentially the same as Resort. Prettier, couple of new modes. Party pleaser. Fun single-player. Poor online title b/c it's a slow game.
Boxing I haven't bothered to try b/c of the reviews. Plus, Baseball! I'm way too busy playing it!
I actually loved playing Tennis. Golf was great, as was Bowling. Boxing always sucked, though...
I'm totally getting the Disc version soonish. Wii Sports was a good time-waster, but what I've played of the other sports from the 1-day trials, this version definitely has more staying power.
@Samurai_Goroh 100% agree, I need a new wiimote plus and would bought this as a two for one. Now I guess I HAVE to buy a yoshi one
On another note, this 'Wii u sports club' fiasco is actually the perfect example of Nintendo's poor handling of bringing the Wii u to market. So many decision changes and mistakes in marketing have created the opposite effect of Wii sports massive success alongside the Wii, with this really representing a back track for the initial Wii u launch strategy.
@Samurai_Goroh - I'll be honest w/ you, I didn't even know this game required Plus.
But if they are going to put requirements on the box they might want to add that it requires a Wii U. I know it says Wii U on the very top of the box but I can't help but think a few casual players might just assume it's a Wii Sports sequel for the Wii. The box looks like Sports Resort.
http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Sports-Resort-Nintendo/dp/B004W1IX1G/ref=sr_1_7?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1405020472&sr=1-7&keywords=wii+sports+club
Interesting review. The most disappointing part is that Boxing no longer supports Nunchuks as I only have 3 Wii Remote Plus controllers.
Boxing really sucks, especially as I have to play it one-handed. Wii sports boxing was brilliant imo. Won't probably be buying as the online isn't that crowded and I mostly play off tv...
The only one I bought so far is Tennis, but the online is so atrocious that it makes me not want to buy any of the others.
I like this review approach, as you only read what you want to read. Still I would not pay more than $20 for the whole package.
I like the game.
I mean, I loved Wii Sports (who didn't?) and this one is better in every way. Ya, the boxing is crap but the Golf is SPECTACULAR. The baseball and bowling is really great and the tennis is pretty good too. I'm buying this retail despite owning all 5 digitally just because I want it on disc> it's a classic game and I love owning physical copies of classic games.
I really hope Mario Golf on Wii U takes a page out of Wii Sports Club's playbook and offers an option to play with the Gamepad on the ground and Wiimote to swing. Man I love golfing that way!
@rjejr
There's also probably a few people that'll buy microwaves thinking they're AC units.
But you can't fix stupid.
Nintendo, pleaaaassse let it go! At the Wii launch it was what it was: A fun demonstration of the Wiimote, with clean (but simple graphics). It did its job, attracting the masses. But the masses won't be tempted again with this game, and we fans don't need it either! Just let it go away.
Already Bought Them all Digital. It's Fun
This is a fair review. I might personally bump it up to an 8.5 if for no other reason golf and bowling are so much fun. Granted, this is coming from somebody who didn't play it on the Wii so much, so maybe that's why I'm having more fun with it.
Tennis wasn't spoken of highly, but it's the game my friends go to when they play it. I went ahead and got baseball and boxing, so I can't comment on those. So, if you are on the fence on this and haven't tried the demos yet, give it a shot- that's what got me to buy them. I had more fun than I thought I would.
@JaxonH - I wish my microwave was an AC b/c I'm too lazy to put the AC in the window but the microwave is just always a few feet behind me.
Everyone who complained about Wii Sports "where is the online. why is this in standard def still" Now we have Wii Sports Club. Online + HD. What you asked for. Now people say "No way am I paying for that. You need to give it to me for free or for $20" no wonder sales are slow, you idiots always want something for nothing.
I recently got zelda hd ans i am pretty broke. I only care about tennis. I think i will get individual sport when the price drops.
I bought the disc.. I don't love all the sports, but I'm a sucker for a retail release of such things. It's a decent enough price on Shopto if ever you're interested, particularly if you end up with a Gold membership because you've spent far, far too much money in recent years feeding this awful habit..
HELP!
@Dankykong
Who are you talking to? Voices in your head?
I wonder if Golf could be even more realistic with Balance Board support.
@Nintenjoe64 You might want to cancel that order if you placed one, now CARS is not coming to Wii U until 2015. It was hardly breaking news, with both titles bring published by BANDAI. They were hardly going to release C.A.R.S. up against SSB4. Just hope 2015 does not lead on to "Cancelled".
@akaDv8R I could smell a cancellation around the corner as soon as a major publisher got on board. Namco haven't been particularly cruel to Wii U owners but their support hasn't been massive and I'd imagine that Pacman on Wii U sold terribly enough to scare them off any development that Nintendo didn't fund.
Time to flood the Miiverse with complaints/worries about this delay/cancellation!
@Nintenjoe64 Possibly, although Slightly Mad Studios have said from the start, they are determined to be the first developer to bring a true racing experience to the Wii U. Time will tell I guess. Hoping Hyrule Warriors and SSB4 helps shift enough consoles to warrant a release.
@akaDv8R the problem these days is that devs have the best intentions and publishers can dump all over those intentions pretty easily once they become their paymaster. This whole thing would be a lot worse if EA had bought Project CARS
@Blue-Thunder Well, it is a very nice lick of paint, and the MotionPlus and GamePad enhancements are also a major (and arguably the best in Golf, Tennis, and Baseball) new enhancement as well. I think the prices are reasonable.
Argghh, the term is "fly ball," darn it! "Air ball" is a basketball term.
@Nintenjoe64 I would like to be able to say you are wrong........ BUT I CANNOT. point made, and made well.
i thin ki will just get the retai version, since its the same as buying all 5 permanently
I'd rather see a new Wii Sports collection that just uses the gamepad, I don't think this HD throwback to 2006 is going to win over any new believers
My suggestion: Wii Sports Touch
5 new sports,
Maybe have it as DLC or something. Or while we're at it, where is Pilotwings for the Wii U?
Moved on. Mario galaxy was a milestone in gaming that, for all the right reasons, made me forget about conceptual fun in the likes of wii sports and all others before galaxy.
Yep, wii u is more awesome already.
@Maelstrom
I too am still waiting.
@Maelstrom I waited too long too, and now it's 50-70€ on ebay plus shipping... I should have bought it back then.
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