- Wii Sports Japanese site
- Direct feed movies from the final game
- Direct feed trailer of Tennis, Baseball, Golf and Boxing
- Bowling video off screen, good quality
- Pictures
- Famitsu's Preview
- Wii Sports off screen gameplay footage from the Nintendo World Store - A great showcase for the controls
A compilation of the info about the game from the interviews with the development team at Nintendo's official site and a few other sources:
Developed by EAD:
- Katsuya Eguchi is the producer and was the producer of Animal Crossing Wild World and is also producing Wii Play
- Keizo Ota is the director of Tennis and has worked on Wave Race 64 (Chief Programmer), F-Zero X (Chief Programmer), "100 Marios" demo, Yoshi Touch & Go (Game Conception & Program Director)
- Zenichi Yamashita is the director of Baseball and Boxing and has worked on Pikmin (Game Programming), Pikmin 2 (Main System Programming), Big Brain Academy (Assistant Director)
- Takayuki Shimamura is the director of Golf and Bowling and has worked on Nintendogs (System Director)
General:
- The games were born from experiments made for the Wii remote (and the other controllers Nintendo had created before being refined into the final controller)
- Miyamoto came up with the idea of having the compilation games like Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Health and referred to them as 'packs', so each title would contain games connected by a theme
- Yamashita worked on the concept which ended up becoming the Mii Channel and playing as an on-screen alter ego of yourself added a great sense of involvement and fun for the player
- All games are designed to be simple enough for anyone to play with a "let me try!" factor, and have enough depth and difficulty to keep people going for a long time
- All games have a variety of training modes
- Scores in all the games feel like they have value
- The games let players choose whether they're left or right handed (~3 mins into the video) (thanks to MrSardonic)
- GAF poster Annoying Old Party Man (thanks) has recently interviewed a Nintendo exec who implied they could possibly send new levels and events for Wii Sports via WiiConnect24 soon after the launch of the system, or early next year
Tennis:
- Huge variation in controls, virtually impossible to hit the same shot twice
- Movement feels analogue, with the remote picking up how you've moved your wrist and the speed you moved your arm
- 60 computer controlled opponents, ranging in difficulty
- Game features skill level ranking so the player knows how they're progressing
- You can also have a game of doubles where a single player controls all the characters on screen
- Rocket Serve allows players to hit a really fast serve if they time the swing of the remote just right and hit the ball at its highest point
- Target Practice Mode involves hitting targets on a wall. If you miss the targets you start to chip away at the bricks. When a hole has been made in the wall the game is over.
Wii Experience videos:
http://us.wii.com/set3_exp02.jsp
http://us.wii.com/set2_exp02.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp01.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp04.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp07.jsp
Baseball:
- The game brings back the NES level of fun and simplicity
- As in the other games, a huge variety of shots is available by the way you move the Wii remote
Wii Experience videos:
http://us.wii.com/set3_exp03.jsp
http://us.wii.com/set3_exp04.jsp
http://us.wii.com/set2_exp01.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp06.jsp
Bowling:
- Analogue-style responsiveness
- Every game feels different just like the real thing
- Achieving a perfect score is very difficult to the extent in all the testing of the game no one has ever done it, getting a few strikes in a row is easier
- If you let go of the button too early the ball will bounce and you can even throw the ball across lanes
Wii Experience videos:
http://us.wii.com/set3_exp01.jsp
http://us.wii.com/set2_exp03.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp03.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp08.jsp
Golf:
- Includes 9 of the best holes from the original NES game, which Iwata was a programmer on
- In a similar way to Tennis, control feels analogue and slight movements and different speeds of your swing change the shot giving a huge variety
Wii Experience videos:
http://us.wii.com/exp02.jsp
http://us.wii.com/exp05.jsp
Boxing:
- Timing of the punches and judging the distance between yourself and your opponent are important factors to playing well
- Dodging is key to the game
- Difficulty is well balanced with it being rewardingly easy at the beginning, but becomes gradually more challenging
