Playground for Nintendo Wii

After being disappointed by Carnival Games for the Wii, I decided to take a chance on another game- EA Playground. I was lured by the potential to be able to play dodgeball with the Wiimote; once I heard that, it sucked me in.

This is a cute game. I spent some time with the single-player mode. In this mode, you choose which kid you want to be, you are turned loose onto the playground. There are a number of games to choose from- paper airplane racing, slot cars, dodgeball, tetherball, handball, this weird volleyball/soccer/karate hybrid game and a laser tag type shooting game.

Slot cars is a surprisingly addictive little game- and there's no track to set up! Also, I love how reality just goes out the window. In the wallball game, if you hit a square on the wall with the ball, you can send the ball into a vortex, only to have it reappear at some other spot- hopefully confusing the opponent. And in the volleyball game, players leap into the air and bend it like Beckham- while flipping around in crazy positions.

You have to wander around (the levels are not so big) until you find someone to challenge. If you beat them, then you get a sticker and marbles. When you beat enough people, you open up a new area where the challenges are a bit trickier. Each person also has "dares" that require you to complete the activity under certain conditions. You have to use the marbles that you earn (and scavenge for additional ones) to buy extra moves so that you can compete at the more difficult levels.

For the most part, I actually enjoyed playing this game. Using the Wiimote to manipulate things made for an engaging interactive experience, just like Wii Sports. Some of the games are a little tough to get the hang of; the controls are not always the most intuitive. But the offerings are fun- this is not a replacement for Wii Sports.

The game seems longer than it is. When I first unlocked a new area, I thought I would get to play new games. Instead, there were just the same old games I had already played. I like the idea of the dares- that presents an actual challenge, but it did get a little tedious doing the same activities in several different venues. Where's the variety?

Also, the controls are completely not intuitive at all. Instead of using both the Wiimote and the nunchuck, you just use the Wiimote. This worked well in Wii Sports because you weren't expected to move around or push any buttons- or if you did push buttons, it was easy to do, like with the Wii Sports golf game. In this game, you use the d-pad to move and you are often expected to push buttons and use the motion sensitivity feature by moving the Wiimote around. It's the tiniest bit annoying and it is so much easier to use the nunchuck in conjunction with the Wiimote.

Another little thing that bothered me was that the CPU player(s) would do a lot of showboating if I lost a challenge. I know that this is just a video game, and I certainly don't think that this is going to lead anyone to emulate the video game and start showboating over at Little League, but what precedent does it set? Frankly, it just made them look ridiculous doing it, but what's the point of it all?

In terms of the graphics, this game is a big cartoon. Everything is bright and colorful. Unlike Carnival Games, there are no signs of stuttering or graphical slowdown. The children in the game are a diverse bunch, and there are fun details in the various environments. The sound is fairly average; there's no voice acting, but there isn't anything wrong with the background music or the sound effects.

Of course, you can also play this game against other people- and this proved to be more fun that Carnival Games (which had you passing the same Wiimote back and forth). The games are certainly more eclectic than the offerings in Wii Sports, but there's no comparison. At the end of the day, boring old tennis and golf are much more fun than even that weird hybrid game.

This is a great game for kids. And in fact, in case you couldn't tell from clues like collecting marbles and getting stickers for a sticker book, this game is geared towards the younger set. This isn't the first game on the list that I would mention to a new Wii owner, but this certainly is much better than some of the other games I have played for the system.

Finally- and this deserves its own paragraph- this game has the dubious distinction of being the only game in recent memory not to employ an auto-save feature. Ask me how I know this.

I recommend EA Playground as a rental. After having played it, I am glad that we did not buy it. This was fun for a couple of weeks, but there is not enough variety to make it a worthwhile purchase. This knocks the socks off of Carnival Games, but it just doesn't have what it takes to earn the top spot on the party game list.