Review: Wii Game Party

This past Christmas, I was looking for stocking stuffers for the family and decided to pick up Wii Game Party for myself. At the time I purchased it, I didn't think it was going to be a great game but I figured it would be something the family could enjoy.

As it turns out, I was right on both accounts.

I didn't play the Game Party game right away but, on New Years Eve, we found ourselves looking for something to do while waiting for the ball to drop and figured that would be a good opportunity. And, for the most part, we had fun playing it.

The Wii Game party offers a variety of games; darts, table hockey, skill ball, hoop shoot, ping cup (similar to the bar game you sometimes see people play with a ping pong ball and cups of beer), shuffleboard and trivia. We were each able to find games we were good at and others we couldn't play at all (I, for example, played hoop shoot three times and never managed to get the basketball into the hoop even once). It was almost like being at an arcade; you just didn't have to spend your quarters to earn the tickets (which, in this game, are used to earn upgrades).

While fun, as I said before, the game wasn't great either. I'm not sure why but every one of the games seemed to be a bit off when we were playing them; almost as though the controllers weren't being detected right. When we were playing shuffleboard, for example, the pucks seemed to go to the left while, in skill ball; the balls went to the right. This made it hard to be accurate, especially at darts.

The other thing I noticed about this game was the fact the controls to play it were a bit complicated. In darts, to give you another example, you have to hold the Wii remote horizontal (like you would a dart) and go through the throwing motion that way. If that isn't difficult enough, you have to hold the A button on the controller and release it as you are going through the motion. It's more difficult than it sounds and our daughter couldn't do it at all.

Considering this was in the bargain bin at Wal-mart for under $20, I do think it turned out to be worth the money. It wasn't perfect, but as I said before, it was definitely entertaining. I could see this game being a hit at any party.