Nintendo's new baby called the Nintendo Wii has taken the gaming world by storm; it is not its amazing graphics (they are not amazing, but they are adequate though) or some new super sound system.
It is the game play and its new way of using controllers to enhance the game playing experience.

Wii play I would say is a must have game. For a start it comes with a Wii remote controller (the wireless controller for the Wii) thus allowing two player games.
More importantly is you have to play each level (or mini game) before you unlock the next game and progress onward through the game. Each game is more challenging and introduces more ways in which the Wii remote can be used. Challenging might be too strong a word as once played a couple of times all the games become easier and above all fun.

This game really gives you a great idea of what the Wii is all about. I would imagine Nintendo have realised that with such a radical difference to other console controllers out in the market, the user needs to be guided into how it works, so the user gets the best possible gaming fun out of this new console.

For those who have yet to see the Nintendo Wii and its wireless controller called the Wii remote, let me explain what the Wii remote looks like.
Imagine you have a television remote control in your hand and you are pointing it at the television. Where you have the buttons on your TV remote, you also have buttons on your Wii remote, to the front you have a joypad (a directional controller similar to a joystick, but without the stick) often called the "D" pad, Also on the top is a button you will find yourself using on a regular basis called the "A" button. Underneath is a button (they call it the "B" button) that resembles a trigger on a gun and in some games that is what it becomes. When playing Wii play you will find yourself using both the "A" and "B" buttons.
The other bits worth noting are at the back of the Wii remote is a socket where you attach the Nunchuk, and the top has two other buttons "1" and "2".

One other thing is Nintendo have produced their own language.
Wii - the console
Wii remote - the wireless controller
Mii - a character sprite
Nunchuk - a wired controller, that is used in some games with the Wii remote the wire from the Nunchuk attaches to the Wii remote.
They have also other items, controllers etc, none of these are relevant in this review so I will not mention them.

Onto the game itself.

Wii play is a series of mini games that can only be unlocked by playing the games in order.

Our family have got into the habit of using the wrist strap on the Wii remote every time we use it, having read the horror stories of Wii remotes hitting television screens; I strongly recommend that you also always use the wrist strap.

Shooting range

In this game you point the Wii remote at the television like a gun and the "B" button will be the trigger. On the television you will see a targeting icon, this you move by simply moving the Wii remote.
If at any time you see ducks during this game shooting them will give you bonus points.
Accurate shooting resulting in a succession of hits will also give you bonus points.
You never seem to run out of ammunition.
You are first presented with balloons gently moving upwards, these balloons need to be shot.

The next stage is targets, these are stationary and the first few are easy enough to hit, do not hit the Mii character targets as you will lose points. The gold targets will give you bonus points. Just as I was lulled into a false sense of ease, the targets got faster and faster.

Then it moves onto clay pigeons (skeet shooting), simply a succession of clay pigeons that you need to shoot.

The game now moves onto tin cans, by shooting them they will stay in the air, again it starts off easy but becomes more frantic as the game progresses.

This mini game closes with UFO's; you are trying to shoot them to stop the Mii's at the bottom of the screen from being abducted.

Having competed this, you will find you have unlocked the next game.

Find Mii

Again you point the Wii remote at the screen aiming at Miis, instead of shooting them you select them.
It will vary what you have to find, it may be two (or more) the same, or the odd one out or the fastest Mii. This against the clock, an incorrect guess will lose you time. You gain seconds by completing a successful round.
The mini game ends when you run out of time and the high score is the amount of successful rounds completed.

The next game unlocked is

Table Tennis

Now you start to use the Wii remote in a slightly different way, you grip the Wii remote as if you're holding the handle of a table tennis bat. Swinging it to the left and right to return the ball.
In one player mode you're playing against the computer.
Although this is not very easy at first, with practise you will find you're able to smash the ball, put spin on, all the skills that you can have playing the real game, although this game is enjoyable as well as challenging, it is much better when played in two player mode.

After this you will have unlocked

Pose Mii

Again you point the Wii remote at the screen, this time you will be twisting the Wii remote to turn a Mii on the screen, when the Mii matches the shape in the bubble you will have succeeded and another bubble will drop down containing a shadow that needs to be filled by a Mii. If you let a bubble fall to the bottom of the screen you lose a life.
There are three different poses that the Mii can be in, you change the selection by pressing the "A" or "B" button.
This is a really easy game at first, again I was lulled into a false sense of security, the game got faster, with more bubbles falling down the screen and the Mii changed more often. The only thing that saved me from disaster was every now and then a Mii came down that was different to the others, when I lined up my Mii with the shadow I got a few seconds where the bubbles froze and gave me a chance to clear up the lower bubbles.

This opens up

Laser Hockey

This is very similar to the table top game of air hockey that can be found in many amusement arcades up and down the country, instead of a round handle to hit the puck, you have a paddle like that found in a lot of knock down brick type computer games. You control the paddle by pointing the Wii remote at the screen, move it to move the paddle and twist it to change the angle of the paddle.
The game is fast and own goals are easy to score (well they are for me); I found this very enjoyable to play.

From here you can move onto

Billiards

Again you start with the Wii remote pointing at the television screen, you then line up the shot, hold the "B" button and pull the Wii remote back in a similar way to the way you would use a cue, that includes pushing forward to strike the cue ball.
I don't want to go far in depth about the way this operates because our family was in fits of laughter at the way we all played this, to spoil that for anyone would be unfair in my eyes.
The game itself is similar to nine ball pool, with practise you will be able to do all sorts of things, side, back spin, stun shots, follow through, soft and hard shots.
This is yet another game that really comes into its own when two people are playing.

Having played that you can now go

Fishing

Still pointing the Wii remote at the television, this time no buttons are involved, it is all about movement and control of the Wii remote. I found that as we progressed through all the games on Wii play, they got progressively more challenging so although no buttons were needed the actual movement of the Wii remote was much harder than in the earlier games.
You have a lake with different types of fish in; the idea is to catch them. To do this you need to drop the hook into the lake and with small movements of the Wii remote you can lure the fish into taking the bait.
When you have hooked one, lift the Wii remote to land it.
Bonus fish are shown on the screen (these give double points).
Try to avoid the tiddlers, if you land a tiddler you will lose points off of your score, if you do hook a tiddler and you do not lift the Wii remote then after a few seconds the tiddler will come off of the hook.

After landing your catch you can move to the next game.

Charge

This is the first game where you do not point the Wii remote at the screen, instead you turn it to the left (with the "D" pad on your left).
This is a racing game; it is against the clock you need to reach the finishing line before the clock runs out to get a score. You do not need to reach the finishing line in two player mode; it is simply the higher score that wins the race.
But it is not a normal racing game, your Mii character is on a cow/bull, you have scarecrows ahead of you on the racetrack and you need to run into them, because it is against the clock it is more like charge than run.
So when the games starts you twist the Wii remote forward (away from you) to go faster and twist back (toward you) to slow down. You steer by twisting the Wii remote from side to side.
You will also need to jump over fences; this is done by lifting the Wii remote up quickly.
Our six year old really loves playing this.

From this the final game opens up

Tanks

Your in charge of a tank and you have to destroy the enemy tanks (note in two player mode, the other player is not the enemy, even though the higher score wins), you can shoot them or lay mines and hope they run over them.
In my opinion this is the hardest of all of the games to master.
Shooting is easy enough, simply point the Wii remote at the television, then move it to aim the turret and press button "B" to fire.
Dropping mines are even easier simply press the "A" button and then keep out of the way of them.
Moving however adds a dimension of complexity. You can either plug the Nunchuk into the back of the Wii remote using the control stick to move and manoeuvre the tank, or you can use the "D" pad of the Wii remote instead. When you add this and the targeting together it is quite a complex game. But with practise this can also be an enjoyable game.

This game retails at about £35 and comes with a Wii remote controller, when you consider a Wii remote controller on its own costs £30, the game itself is only £5. This makes it very good value and as it helps people to learn how to use the Wii remote, it becomes a game that is not only cheap but a very useful game that teaches the player the ways that Nintendo intend the Wii remote (along with the Nunchuk controller).

My family have clocked up over 100 hours of game play with this game. Divide that by the cost of the game (£35) and it works out at less than 35p per hour of gaming, you cannot get much entertainment for that. Even better if you take away the cost of the Wii remote, we have ended up with a game that has cost us less than 5p per hour.
This might sound complex, it is my way of working out how much value I get for a game (cost divided by hours of game play equates to cost per hour).

This is an all round family game that has given us hours of fun, with many more to come.