Wii Sports - Deeper than you thought?

[Chris]

Wii Sports might be one of the games that everyone can instantly pick up and have fun with, they see it and want to interact with it.
In this regard, Wii Sports reminds me of the PONG phenomenon.

It's easy to grasp, but is it hard to master?
The manual describes the sport activities rather briefly and vague, ans the uninitiated might get the idea, that it's just that simple, but is it? I personally think, that this was done intentionally, to encourage people to experiment with the new conreoller and find new ways to interact by theirselves.

I've played those games for quite some time now and I'd like to share what I've found out. This game happens to really have quite a lot to offer, there are many nuances and hidden stuff to be found.
I'll start with the most well known game of the package, Wii Sports Tennis.

Tennis
-serving seems to be a matter of timing, hit the ball at the highest point to get a "power serve"
-positioning of the ball is also controlled through timing (for a right-handed mii, hit the ball early with your forehand, to send it to the left and late, to hit it to the right side of the court)
-a very interesting thing is, that you can apply sidespin to the ball, if you twist the wiimote while swinging (I can't exactly say if it's possible to apply top or back spin in a similar manner)
-you can play a lob, if you move the wiimote down-up
-you can hit a smash, if you're in front of the net and move the wiimote up-down
-if you turn pro, the crowd watching you gets bigger
-if you press and hold "2" after character selection, you can play on the blue practice court

So this little tennis game, give you quite a lot of possibilities. You can do flat shots, lobs, smashes and apply sidespin. It's deeper than I initially thought and I'm really having difficulties reaching the 2000 points mark.

So, what does everyone else think, has anyone found out other things or has some corrections?

I'd especially like to know, if it's possible to influence the position of your serve or apply a little spin on it?
Is it possible to control the amount of top or backspin on your shots, without applying sidespin to them?
Has anyone managed to do a drop-shot?
Does anything happen, if you reach 2000 points (like crowd getting bigger, after you reached 1000 points)?
What's the highest score anyone has achieved (is it possible to get a score higher than 2000)?

[Mayhem]

In Tennis, I have no idea what the highest score is but the graph does go off the top of the range if you keep going LOL

My brother is currently on 2036 and one of his mates is 2078. They are the highest I know of (I'm on around 1800 currently).

[PSXferrari]

Love Wii Sports, but the unfortunate thing is that if you try to play it like the real thing then you will be at a disadvantage. Here's what I mean: if you're running around swinging your arms like a real tennis racket, you will hit it no where near as hard as your buddy if he's sitting in a chair just flicking his wrist at each ball. Try it, especially on serves. Instead of lobbing the ball up and doing a normal hit, just flick your wrist and you'll do a more powerful serve. The biggest culprit is the baseball game. Try pitching as you would in real life (which for me usually results in 65 to 75 MPH pitches), then try just flicking your wrist down and you'll be pitching at around 95 MPH every time.

Kind of sucks that it works out that way. I guess if your playing with a friend the best thing is to just both agree not to use the "flicking" method. But when playing by yourself, is there really any reason to play it right? Probably not if your trying to get your scores up.

[skaar]

I found the most fun with the bowling, of all the sports available. It was the closest to its "real" sport.

[chicnstu]

In Tennis, I have no idea what the highest score is but the graph does go off the top of the range if you keep going LOL

My brother is currently on 2036 and one of his mates is 2078. They are the highest I know of (I'm on around 1800 currently).

I'm at 2079 but I don't play anymore. It doesn't seem like that's the highest you could go though. It was definitely getting harder to where you have to win all 3 matches to gain points.

[Flack]

I didn't know this was possible, but I walked in the living room earlier and my son was playing Tennis against himself using only one Wiimote. When picking your opponent you can pick yourself, and then the wiimote controls both sides of the court. Talk about a workout! The good news is, you always win. The bad news is, you always lose.

[crazyjackcsa]

I didn't know this was possible, but I walked in the living room earlier and my son was playing Tennis against himself using only one Wiimote. When picking your opponent you can pick yourself, and then the wiimote controls both sides of the court. Talk about a workout! The good news is, you always win. The bad news is, you always lose.

I learned how to play chess that way. It's a pretty good way to learn if you legitimately try to beat yourself.

[CreamSoda]

I love Wii Sports, believe it or not I play it more then any other Wii games that we own. Although I highly enjoy Super Paper Mario, Zelda:TP,ect. Wii Sports gets my most play time. It is a much better game then I first thought, having near infinite replay value and plenty of different ways to play.

So far, Bowling is by far my favorite game. And it is the only sport I have become a "Pro" in. Right now I am working on getting a Pro rating in Tennis.

I might even go so far as to say, Wii Sports is the best pack in game I've played since Super Mario Brothers.

P.S. does anyone have some tips for Bowling? I can never seem to score over 215.

[Icarus Moonsight]

First of all, yes Wii Sports is much deeper than most claimed when they first encountered it. Even I was surprised to see how I could smash a low lob at the net. :)

I have a few tips for Wii Bowling. Bowling is the only game in the set that rewards playing as you would the real game. I suggest taking a few steps (helps in timing) to start. Three to be precise. Righty's should start out with the left foot and the opposite for southpaws. You have to time your three step approach with your throw. The first step is for your draw (taking the ball back behind you), the second step helps time your release (when you plant your second step the remote should be at the bottom of your throw arch, which is usually when your hand passes the knee on the leg that took the second step with) and the third for follow through. I've found that follow through is very important for determining the power of your throw and really helps when you start adding in the strike hungry hook. :) The follow through should be complete, almost as if your trying to knock a tophat off your head. Now for mastering that hook.

It's hard to suggest how best to set-up your positioning for a hook without actually seeing how much arch you get from the combo of your throw power/speed and amount of english (wrist twist) you naturally put on the ball. You just have to experiment but, don't mess with your throw once you have the timing down. Only change your position on the boards, the pitch your throwing down the lane and your wrist twist. Only put twist on the remote during the release and keep your hand position all the way to your follow through. Once you find a sweet spot for your strike-ball then go to training and work on picking up them spares with the blue chucks in the lane. That training game also helps you adjust your wrist twisting on the fly so changing from throw to throw is more natural and automatic. Hope I could help.

[Chris]

@PSXferarri:
I think they just had to limit the amount of power/speed you can inflict to the ball. They could've forced you to swing as wide and powerful as possible, but that would also lead to more injuries and accidents I suppose ^^'
It's actually kinda better this way imho, cause you can make those "real" movements with your whole arm (though you have to be faster to keep up with someone who only flicks the controller) or you can just swing it with your hand only. And regarding the serve, that's not true really, as the speed of the serve is only influenced by your timing, so there's no real difference if you do a normal hit or just flick your wirst, if your timing is right. I can get "power serves" (those with the smoke trails) regularly with both playing styles.

Though at the end, an option to calibrate the amount of movement/speed needed to hit the ball would've been nice. The lack of options in general is the only thing that really bugs me about Wii Sports.

@Icarus:
Thx for the tips, Bowling is also my favourite of the pack, it's really rewarding, but I'm still kinda baffled about the direction of the spin (english) you put on the ball. I really can't quite see the pattern applied here, as sometimes the ball spins to the left and sometimes to the right, regardless in which direction you twist the remote. The only thing important is the angle of the twist, not in which direction you twist the wiimote, which wouldn't be too bad if I'd know how the direction is determined. It has something to do with your position in relation to the pins, but that's all I've figured out so far..

Anyone knows?

[Mayhem]

It must be in relation... I'm left handed and I've tried bowling right handed (without swopping the Mii assignment over) and the ball still goes off to the right slightly.

As for getting strikes, a consistant repeated action is needed. Something I've tried to develop. My best is 267 but I know I can get better than that. Brother's is 278 (lucky git) so far...