Tall Birch

By now, Wii fans are well aware of Wii Play, an apparent sequel (from the US perspective — this was a launch title in EU) to the very successful Wii Sports. Reviews for Wii Play have suggestged that the mini-games (of which there are nine) are much shallower, and purchasing this game is mostly worth it as you get a Wiimote bundled with the game but still only pay $50. I will not take umbrage with the second half — actually, thanks to Zach, the Wii Play will have given me my third and fourth Wiimotes. However, Wii play is quite fun and in some cases, pretty addictive. Of the nine mini-games, I would like to point out a few noteworthy games.

The games I find myself playing over and over:

Find Mii
This game also wins for biggest surprise. It is pretty straight forward: find the required Mii or pair of Mii depending on the Stage. Action is fast and furious, and the scenery, stage goals, and volumes of Mii out on the screen makes this game rewardingly challenging (or at least far more so than you would think). The screen shot shows a simple escalator scene. Finding the pair in the picture is quite simple — in the picture — in the game, these escalators are moving! Gain time for correctly finishing a stage, lose time either by picking the wrong Mii or just sitting there trying to find what you are supposed to.

Billiards
My first thought was that is the games were generally going to be shallow, then a billiards game would likely suffer. And to some extent, perhaps it does. However, it is the one game that I have replayed the most. Aiming is striaght forward, and lining up your cue is easy too. Even more amazing, the cue will go where it should based on where it gets hit — hit it low, and it will back-spin. Hit it high, and it will chase. A good game.

Games I predict will get the most multi-player action amongst friends

Tanks
This is a fun game (somewhat) as one player, but I imagine the dual gameplay of drive the tank/shoot the shell will be challenging enough. Not to mention that most of my friends prefer drive ‘em out/shoot ‘em up style, and this games matches it better than any other.

Laser Hockey
As the reviews have stated, this is the best game. It combines all that is great about air hockey (including the rather frequent yet embarrassing own goals) with a nice pseudo-80s neon look. A game tha would be a hoot for two non-CPU players.

Guilty pleasure:Fishing
Played ony once so far: Shooting Range; Pose Mii