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EA Playground Review for the Nintendo Wii

EA Playground Review for the Nintendo Wii

Wii Sports with a Coat of Cute on it

Although the Wii is selling like hotcakes, there is still a dearth of innovative or fresh titles for the system. A large number of the games that are coming out for Nintendo’s latest console are either PlayStation ports with tacked on Wii controls or games that are trying to cash in on the casual gamer market with a minigame collection or a party game mix. EA Playground is the latest game to fit in the minigame collection category, with a title that adds a little to the Wii Sports formula, but still doesn’t manage to be as fun or deep as Nintendo’s packed in title.

EA Playground screenshot

EA Playground is set in a schoolyard. You play a new student and your goal is to basically play the other students in various games and earn marbles and stickers. You spend the game exploring the schoolyard and finding your next challenge, ultimately unlocking more of the schoolyard to explore. This is a nice addition to the Wii Sports minigame formula since Wii Sports transported you to each game as you chose them from the title screen. The ability to explore the schoolyard and to participate in activities beyond the simple minigames adds a little bit of immersiveness to the gameplay. However, for the most part, that is the sole advantage that EA Playground has over Wii Sports, as the rest of the game winds up feeling a little too simple. While EA was obviously shooting for a younger crowd with this title, they seem to have set the bar a little too low in some areas and a little too high in others.

As I stated earlier, the goal in EA Playground is to earn stickers to place in your scrapbook. Marbles are the currency of the playground and can generally be found simply by wandering the schoolyard. However, the majority of your marbles must be earned by challenging the other students to the various games that are available, which are dodgeball, kicks, slot car racing, tetherball, paper racers, wall ball, and dart shootout. Although the games are relatively fun, most of them lack the depth that you can get from Wii Sports. Dodgeball, which seems to be the highlight of the group since EA mentions it on the game’s cover, is especially disappointing. The players are broken into teams of three and attempt to hit one another from across a dividing line. However, much of the game winds up with players staring at one another, waiting to catch or dodge the ball, which doesn’t recreate the thrill of a youthful game of dodgeball. Slot car racing, on the other hand, is flat out boring, with the player controlling a slot car through eight or more rounds on a mini racetrack. Paper racers and dart shootout are probably the most fun in the bunch, with paper racers allowing you to control a paper airplane in a manner similar to WarioWare, guiding the airplane through obstacles to the finish line, and dart shootout is an FPS-lite game that allows you to fire your way through a shooting gallery.

EA Playground screenshot

As you perform well in each game and defeat the various characters, you earn marbles, which can be used to purchase stickers. The stickers give you new abilities in each game, so you might unlock a new car for slot racing, a new type of paper airplane for paper racers, or a power hit in tetherball. This increases the replay value of the game and gives you a reason to play each character multiple times as well, since each of the first four times you play a character they give you a different objective, such as surviving for a set amount of time in dodgeball or winning in a certain amount of time in tetherball.

EA Playground screenshot

Visually, EA Playground goes for a cartoony, cutesy look that incorporates a bright, colorful, MySims-esque feel. The schoolyard and the characters are all lively with vivid coloration. There’s a bit of a western anime feel to the game too, with stout characters performing flips and acrobatic moves in their readying stance. The visual style is such a good fit with the Miis that it is a disappointment that the game doesn’t allow you to use your Miis in the game.

EA Playground screenshot

The controls vary from the different minigames. A major odd choice that EA made is to exclude the nunchuk, so your character controls using the D-pad, which feels awkward from the start. Some of the games controls are boringly simple, such as tetherball and wall ball, which simply require you to swing the Wii-mote to hit the ball, although pressing the button varies the strength and pitch of your hit. Paper racers is the most intuitive, letting you control your paper airplane as if you were holding it. Dodgeball again falls short the most, with dodging is done by shaking the Wii-mote while throwing the ball is performed by thrusting the Wii-mote forward. However, again you move by using the D-pad, so your character moves slowly and awkwardly to pick up loose balls, which ultimately ruins the pacing. Dodgeball winds up feeling more like a chore than a pleasurable game.

One good thing that EA Playground does have going for it is the ability to play all of the games with multiplayer, although that is a given for a game like this. The games do become more fun if you’re challenging a friend, although there is no online multiplayer.

EA Playground screenshot

Although EA Playground is obviously meant for children, it falls short severely in depth. The comparisons to Wii Sports are inevitable, and since Wii Sports is free EA Playground is going to be hard pressed to compete with Nintendo’s packaged in title. However, if you’re able to look beyond the comparison to Wii Sports, EA Playground offers a lot to a younger gamer with some time to kill, especially if they’ve played Wii Sports to death already.

Features:

  • A Great Multiplayer Game for the Whole Family – It’s fun for all ages. Each game has intuitive controls and is easy to learn. Everyone will want their turn at the party action
  • Great Variety of Gameplay – With everything from playground sports, fun-shooters, flight simulators, and car racing.
  • Explore the Playground in Single-Player – As you complete challenges in Single-Player Mode, you’ll unlock new locations, earn stickers as valuable powerups, and find hidden minigames throughout the playground. Just be sure to collect all the sticker power-ups – You’ll need them!

    RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.7 Graphics
    Cutesy colorful graphics that work well for the game theme. 3.5 Control
    Controls vary from game to game, but the decision to exclude the analog stick is unforgiveable. 3.7 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
    Adequate music and decent sound effects. 3.5

    Play Value
    The games lack the depth of Wii Sports, but some are fun, especially against friends.

    3.6 Overall Rating – Good
    Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

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