Full Review

30 November 2007 - Wii Sports is great, but the games soon tires after a while, well maybe not, but for the purposes of this review they do. So what's on offer if you are looking for more mini-games to challenge your mates? EA's playground that's what. We grab our bag of marbles and head back to school.

Playground on the Wii from EA is a series of mini-games held together within a school setting. Of course the school setting is by the by, the random roaming around collecting stickers to unlock other areas and even smaller mini-games like bouncing a basketball or high-fiving kids really just gets in the way and is there to give you the feeling that you're getting a much bigger game than you actually are, but strip this all back and you've got seven great mini-games to challenge.

So what do you get? Dart shootout, Wall ball, Tetherball, Slot car racing, Paper Racers, Dodgeball and Kicks.

Darts isn't the beer laden sport that you might think, but more a shooting range with targets and other kids to shoot at. It's fast-paced but good fun.

Wall ball is like squash that sees your practice at Wii Tennis come into play against another opponent.

Tetherball, or Swingball as it should be called, is another game that uses those Wii Tennis skills and sees you slapping a ball against an opponent to win.

Slot Car racing is as it sounds, but uses the Wii Remote to allow you to switch lanes to bump off other cars. It's got a Micro Machines feel to it, face paced, nitro boosts, power-ups and plenty of challenges.

Paper racers uses the Wii Remote to control a paper aeroplane as it glides through the air and again there are plenty of challenges like flying though hoops as well as different courses to master.

Dodgeball is the game made famous by the film and Kicks is a cross between Volleyball and Football which out of all the games is probably the hardest to master.

All the games are great fun and as you play the story mode you open up more tracks and different computer players to challenge (don't worry there is a quick mode that allows you to play the basic games without having to bother).

Of course where this game comes into its own though is playing against others and it's a great reason to invest in more Wii Remote controllers. Playing Thetherball or Wall ball is brilliant fun.

So what's the catch? Well there are only seven games to master. It's partly forgivable for Wii Sports as it's free with the console, but being greedy we want more. Marbles for example, or other playground games you have made this even better.

VERDICT
Playground is undeniably great fun, but you will tire if it's just you.

Either way this is definitely one for multiple controllers and plenty of friends, soba or after a few drinks.