Rec Room (Nintendo Wii)

I have the wii motion plus & have rented/bought many mini game style titles for the wii (first console in decades). overall this game has good gameplay programing as a first draft, but very weak on art style, music, event sounds, gameplay/menu options, avatars & NO high scores AT ALL. the forced use of only a few human/animal avatars are the least of the gripes though (even if they only have ONE line/sound for good plays & 1 for bad), having no score retention, there is no excuse, this game feels half done & could have been a great success if spent more time & better sound/art talent.

box maze

1 alone, or 2-4p simultaneous (1p fulls screen, 2 p split & 3/4 player is in quadrants which is impossible to see as the table the box is on takes up a good amount of screen space. has 9 different layouts which is great, each harder (can only do it progressively, cannot choose which layout/stage at all in menu, you can only choose score, time or sudden death (until fall into hole). game lacks ALL event sounds of marble rolling or wood movement so it feels very dull with only hearing jazzy style music that puts you to sleep. wii tilt controls work overall, feels slow as molasses. only sound is ever so often from your avatar. so boring, but could have been decent if went a little beyond reality style only & added more arcade options or art animation.

ring toss

1 alone or 2-4p taking turns. also can use motion+ which works just as well as w/o as I could not see a difference in response. IR point & B & flick controls. works well enough, very dull, no event sounds really. choose 60, 120 or 180 points to win.

table hockey

1 vs. AI or 2p simultaneous, the 70s/80s "stick table hockey" or "bubble top hockey game" style w/the hockey figures rotating & sliding on the lines on the table. nunchuck to slide players up/down or goalie side to side, tilt wiimote to rotate angle of players (their sticks don't move, you move players), A to choose which set of players & B to shoot. easier to get used to then dodogeball, opponent can even steal puck if take too long to shoot, decent event sounds, though too quiet otherwise, at least your camera is behind your own goalie, not to the side of the table & only time so far seen this done on the wii & rare probably in a video game. not bad, just probably take getting use to controls.

dodgeball

1 vs. AI or 2 teams of 2 human players w/AI teammate compete head to head. (camera is very high up & behind your team & teams have 3 guys each) if 2p, you each control one guy on your team in split screen & AI controls the other 2 players & it's very fast-paced. uses nunchuck for movement, d-pad switch targets opponents, A to catch, B to charge & flick to throw. a lot of balls, AI is merciless right off, so many balls gets chaotic, takes a bit to get used to. players getting hit is an amusing animation. could be good if can get used to fast gameplay.

trashcan basketball

1 p alone or up to 4p simultaneous at same trashcan going at any/own speed. only choice is time length of gameplay. use d-pad to lift/lower arrow to increase arc. use B & flick to throw. boring event sounds, that trash can noise grates on my nerves, boring living room environment, harder to control then even game party's basketball (carnival games basketball is too easy in comparison). very dull & grating.

smack a squirrel

1 vs. AI or 2p simultaneous "whack a mole", with nunchuck to move hammer & flick remote to hit. true to carnival style 5 holed whack a mole, they pop/down fast & say "hey" in a squeaky, annoying voice every time they do. dull & annoying.

bowling

1 vs. AI or up to 4p taking turns. the skee ball wooden ball size, bigger then table, but on floor. only option is 3, 5 or 10 frames. uses the usual wii bowling controls & does not notice wrist angle at all unless use motion+ then it works fine (although I had to calibrate a few times as 2x I calibrated, no matter how I moved my wrist it would go all the way to the right every time.) still could be more sensitive probably. fairly serviceable game, meh.

bean bag toss

1 vs. AI or 2p. it's bean bag tic tac toe & glad I never played as a kid. AI makes stupid choices. uses target, B & flick & you can't miss whatever you target on w/ or w/o the motion+, so what's the point? the flipping of the tile is random, so, again, what's the point?

flying disc

1 alone or up to 4p taking turns on same, boring, bulls-eye lines on the garage floor w/almost no event sounds. Frisbee w/1-9 rounds & 1-3 frisbees per round. w/motion+, you see a hand holding Frisbee to decide angle (like frisbee in wii sports resort or tiger woods golf 10 disc golf) & target w/B & flick. w/o, you only target w/B & flick, no hand & less notice of angle, but measures effort/speed. bit boring even with decent controls b/c of presentation or lack thereof.

Gorodki

1p alone or 4 p taking turns. it's a sport originating in Russia that's like bowling w/a large stick/small pole (bat) at other short/wide wood rounded pieces (skittles) that are built into various patterns. the square area where you have to remove the skittles (entirely so not even touching the border) is called the city/gorodki. you take turns, turn ending when person removes all the skittles using as least bats as they can, youtube videos show pros can do it w/1 bat. usual controls of target w/B & flick. good response, can do overhead or sideways w/o motion+ & with it, you can see the stick more before throwing & can do diagonal throws. actually not bad & very interesting & original, too bad the art/sounds are lacking as usual, but least has the bats hitting the skittles event sounds.

rubber band sharp shooting

1 alone or up to 4 simultaneous shooting gallery in a colorful, large backyard w/gnomes w/bulls-eye targets, basketballs, soccer balls, beach balls, paint cans, TNT, rubber duckies in pools, fountains, potted plants, etc. only options are timed 60 seconds or 12 shots total. dull/lame.

fooseball

1 vs. AI or up to 4p, nunchuck needed. wii remote twist to twist poles, nunchuck to moved poles up/down, all poles move at the same time whether rotating or pushing up/down. one thing happened to me was taking too long to do a shot, the program assumed I couldn't reach it & took the ball out & threw it back in again. not too bad, one of the better games on here.

air hockey

1 vs. AI or 2p, using IR & the biggest table & smallest mallet/puck I've seen, even has air holes in table which is a nice touch & good event sounds. so far the best air hockey in my opinion compares to Wii Play's & Game Party because of the size ratio (though makes it more challenging b/c of the size making it harder to see/hit the puck at right angle), (though arcade zone's look better but haven't tried it yet). in vs. AI, the AI levels up every time you win the game (whatever point amount you picked) which is a great option. the AI starts as slow as molasses, but gets faster & more aggressive & I got up to 6 before it beat me. there are power-ups option which show up in sparkles on the table that whoever pushes the puck on it, gets it it can be pushed around by your mallet & there are two: making your mallet 2x as large temporarily, or temporarily making another puck in that person's color (ex. blue) so it makes it twice as hard for opponent & that (blue) puck cannot go into blue's goal, it bounces off. good event sounds, even has cheering whenever there is a goal & huge banner for a split second. only wish it had split screen instead of the the standard looking at table from the side spectator style. best game on here.

Chinese checkers

1 p alone or up to 4. the single player is moronic as another reviewer said. moves are highlighted & you move all by yourself to opposite corner.

table tennis

1 vs. AI or 2p. menu options are single game 2 of 3 & 4 of 7 & can use motion+. you only see the paddles, so it's first person feel & paddles are at angle where your arm would really be in real life & looked down w/motion+ supported & works well. I really liked this one as well, boring visuals as always of some drabby room & against AI feels like you're against a ghost & it plays very well, but I liked the responsiveness (seems just as good as wii sports resort) & seeing the paddle at same angle as remote for front. backhand or lobs or slams, can hold B for strong shots & left/right on d-pad for spin shots. not sure if AI levels up since I did poorly, I never played table tennis as a kid.

hillbilly golf

1 alone or up to 4p. it's ladder golf, the usual target, hold B & flick controls, can use motion+, get 3 points for top rung, 2 for middle & 1 for bottom. controls are ok, drab living room. absolutely no menu options.

cards

1 vs. AI or up to 4p. it's war & snap, both are boring & about randomness mostly. turn over your card one at a time, whichever is higher wins in war. if same value, put out 3 & again, whichever is highest... all you do it put out your card. in snap, you flip over your card one at a time as war, but keep flipping over until cards are same value & then whoever hits A first gets the cards. whoever gets all cards win. boring, no point.

darts

1 vs. AI or up to 4p w/motion+ 301, 501 & cricket. motion+ barely helps, just target & throw as hard as you can & usually lands where you wanted. notices some wrist movement w/motion+ but could have been more like real life.

alley ball

1 vs. AI or up to 4p taking turns. it's skee ball, w/motion+ you only need d-pad to decide where to stand & the motion+ knows angle of wrist, though from what I've seen, it seems to help like darts & unless really bad wrist movement, goes straight & true & very easy to get 50s & 100s.

peg

1 alone or 2p. it's solitaire peg style, you remember from 80s plastic cross shape pegs holder where you jump over pegs to empty spot to remove them until you try to only have 1 left. the pattern here is a triangle though. & got 4 on my own try, didn't bother to see how 2p was.

conclusion:

this could have been a sucessful game had there been more sounds/music, gameplay options & someone with ANY art style creativity whatsoever! the controls work & some gameplay options are very good, so 1-2 guys on this team are the only ones who did their job.

only games that are worth it on here are: air hockey, table tennis, fooseball, table hockey & gorodki.

the ohters could have been good, but have lackluster presentation, etc. issues.

gameplay videos on youtube of

table hockey, whack a mole, bowling, skee ball, trashcan basketball by TSGTheSportsGamer

hands on of maze box, ring toss, bowling & fooseball by wimmi01

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I'd like to have given it 3.5 stars. There are some games I don't like, and yes some of them use the same motions. It will be a good game to play in a group especially with novice video gamets and the older folks.

I really like the rubberband shooting game and another one called Gordeki or something like that. A bad thing is you can't keep yoursame user, in between games you need to choose a character which is lame. A lot of games don't allow you to use your Mii so I don't really see that as a big drawback.

Also, look at the price, it isn't horribly expensive, and it uses the Wii Motion Plus which I think makes it more accurate than other games like Game Party.

I like it.

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I guess I've been spoiled by Sports Resort as well because this game is just lame. I bought it mainly for my kids but doesn't seem to have worked out. My 5 year old plays it but not for very long and my 6 year old just isn't interested. Ditto for me. It actually has to go into a "loading" mode after you finsih a game. Only takes a few seconds but it becomes annoying when you're switching from game to game. Other reviewer's complaints are pretty much the same as mine so I won't go into detail. Going to try to trade it for something else.

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