Wii Play Hands-On

As the name suggests, Wii Play is all about having fun. A collection of nine minigames that will be bundled with the Wiimote, it's the perfect introduction to the console's innovative new control system. It's unlikely to reside in your new console for long periods at a time, but it still boasts all the wit and charm that we've come to expect from Nintendo. We were lucky enough to be invited to Nintendo's headquarters to play seven of the nine minigames firsthand, and we wasted no time swiping, prodding, and twisting the remote to bring you this preview.

Many of Wii Play's minigames are tied into Mii, which is Nintendo's cross-title avatar system. The first game that we played, called shooting range, demanded that you not shoot your in-game representation while protecting it from the threat of alien abductors. Instead of using a gun, you aim by pointing the Wiimote at the screen and pressing B to fire. The game itself is a clear homage to Nintendo's Duck Hunt, and as you shoot down a variety of different targets, ducks will fly by the screen that you can kill for bonuses. Among the targets were tin cans, which you must continually shoot at to keep in the air, as well as balloons and skeets. The best part of the game was the final level, in which you have to stop UFOs from beaming your Mii character into their spaceships for abduction.

The second game, called Find Mii, was a selection of recognition games based on Mii characters. To begin with, all you need to do is pick out the two matching characters from a crowd, but these groups soon become bigger and more difficult to sift through. After this, you have to pick out the Mii in a pool of water that's swimming the fastest, or find the rebel character that's doing something different than the rest of the group, such as looking in the wrong direction.

The table tennis game in Wii Play is no match for Rockstar's take on the sport, as your only action is to move the Wiimote left and right to knock the ball back and forth. As you don't even need to move the controller in a batting motion, it's a little too simple at this stage. Far better is the billiards game, if only because there isn't any other cue-based game available for the console at launch. Before taking a shot with the Wiimote, you can aim the ball up to take the shot and also choose where you want to strike the cue ball. Again, it's incredibly simple gameplay, but it's perfectly suited to the Wii controller.

The last few games we played were Pose Mii, laser hockey, and fishing. In Pose Mii, you must adapt your Mii's pose and fit it into frames that fall from the top of the screen. The character can be moved around the screen with the Wiimote, and its pose can be changed with the A and B buttons. Laser hockey is effectively air hockey with fluorescent lighting, but it's probably the best two-player game of the collection. The mechanics of Wii Play's fishing minigame should be familiar to anyone who's played Nintendo's own Animal Crossing. You dangle the bait in front of a pool of fish, and if they take the bait, you yank up on the Wiimote to catch them.

Even though we had a good look at Wii Play, there are still two more unlockable games that were not available in the preview build. Nintendo is due to include the game with the Wii Remote at launch, which will retail for £35 in the UK. We look forward to seeing how well it stands up next to other high-profile Wii releases very soon.