Best Nintendo Wii Games - Wii Sports

Bundled free with every Wii console, WII SPORTS is a collection of five mini-games that does a great job of introducing players to the Wii's fun motion-sensitive controller. You'll actually use the Wii remote (at times paired with the Nunchuk) to mimic the actions of swinging a golf club, baseball bat, and tennis racket. You can also launch a bowling ball and throw punches as if you were in a boxing ring.

Up to four players can play Wii Sports, and there's also a single-player mode against computer opponents. Players are represented by their Miis (cartoon-like customized avatars), and any other Miis stored on the Wii will randomly appear as teammates and spectators.

Are the games simplistic at times? Sure. Wii Baseball, for example, is little more than a gussied-up batting cage where you try to hit balls out of the park while computer-controlled teammates run around the bases. (In two-player mode, the other person pitches.)

The other games, however, offer more depth and subtlety. For example, in Wii Tennis, your player moves around the court automatically, but you control the ball's direction, spin, and speed as you hit forehands, backhands, overheads, and lobs.

Similarly, in Wii Bowling, you control the ball's angle, speed, and spin. Wii Golf offers fairly intricate courses complete with fairways, roughs, sand traps, and water. The game also provides help with aiming and swing velocity, and automatically provides the correct golf club for the situation.

The only game that might be of concern to parents is Wii Boxing, where two boxers (either human vs. computer or human vs. human) square off with the goal of knocking each other out. Players jab with the Wii remote and Nunchuk to land blows to an opponent's face or body, curl their arms in to block, and move side to side and front and back to dodge. With each blow successfully landed, a player loses a segment of stamina until they collapse.

Wii Sports also offers fitness tests and a training mode with exercises based on the five games. These extra modes help players hone their techniques by letting them practice a single action, like a volley or backhand shot in tennis.

Because of its simplicity and easy-to-learn controls, Wii Sports is the kind of game that everyone -- even non-gamers -- can participate in together, and that's what makes it so compelling. It fosters cross-generational interaction, making it great to bring out at family gatherings and parties. And the fun multiplayer mode means endless re-playability. This game ushers in a new way of playing video games, one that motivates players to move, stretch, bend, swing their arms, and be active.

For more mini-game collections on the Wii, check out Wii Play, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and Rayman Raving Rabbids.