Wii Sports Club

Genre: Compilation / Sports (Various)

Players: 1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

Wii Sports Club, released on the Wii U in 2014, is something of an oddity. This Compilation of Sports games, the third in its series, was originally released piecemeal on the eShop, with its five included sports sold individually for $10 each for Tennis, Bowling, and Golf, and $10 for a combo pack that included Baseball and Boxing, meaning players who wanted the full game would pay $40, or purchase the portions they liked a la carte. Additionally, Nintendo made available a “Day Pass” that allowed access to all the game’s content for a day for a price of $2. Finally, the game was eventually released in physical format. Considering this is a sequel in a series that originally sold on its accessibility, Nintendo’s decision to go with such a confusing pricing scheme is baffling.

Even more baffling is the decision for this game to include the sports that were in the original Wii Sports, and only those sports. Given that most Wii U owners likely upgraded to the console from Wii, it stands to reason that a sizeable portion of the prospective audience here would likely see this as a double-dip, and question whether they really need to buy “the same game” a second time. It’s even more puzzling when the a la carte nature of the game’s pricing would have made for the perfect opportunity to sell players the additional games that were in the second game in the series, Wii Sports Resort.

That’s not to say there was nothing here for players who had already worn out their copies of the original Wii Sports. Each of the included sports here offers an array of minigames that weren’t present in the original game. What’s more, these games would all be online for the first time… though sadly this doesn’t mean much when I’m writing this review in 2022 and the game’s online lobbies are deserted. In addition, at least some of these games offer updated control schemes that make use of the Wii U gamepad.

Here’s what I thought of each of the games in this compilation:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Tennis	Sports (Tennis)	1-4 Team Competitive (Local, Online)	C
tl;dr While the added minigames are nice and the character movement has been updated, this game is one of the least-updated games in this package, and it really could have used an update. Even just giving players the option of moving their characters would have gone a long way to making this a huge improvement over the original game. As-is, this is a disappointingly slim update to the original Wii Sports Tennis.
Bowling	Sports (Bowling)	1-4 Competitive (Local, Online)	B+
tl;dr Bowling hasn’t had much of an update in this release either, but in its defense it didn’t really need one. The game still controls well, and the added minigames are actually quite a lot of fun and give added value to this collection.
Golf	Sports (Golf)	1-4 Competitive (Local, Online)	A
tl;dr I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Golf was the entire reason for this Compilation. Using the Wii U gamepad as a putting guide is absolutely inspired, and adds a whole other layer to both the gameplay and feedback to help you improve your golf game. As a result, this may very well be the best golf game ever made. What’s more, this version includes nine courses – three from the original game, three more based on Wii Sports Resort, and three new “lakeside” courses. Overall, definitely a highlight of this package.
Baseball	Sports (Baseball)	1-2 Competitive (Local, Online)	B-
tl;dr The big change here is that pitchers now control their pitch using the Wii U gamepad and motion control. Traditional gamers will find this offers a lot more nuance, but players who fell in love with Wii Sports’ accessibility may find this to be a confusing change compared to simply using the Wii remote… so I think it’s fair to say this is a divisive change. And of course, you still can’t control outfielders or players already on the bases…
Boxing	Sports (Boxing)	1-2 Competitive Split-Screen (Local, Online)	D+
tl;dr I know there are some players out there who absolutely loved Boxing in the original Wii Sports. I was not one of those players. Much as with the original game, Boxing is still a hectic, frenetic mess of a game with motion controls that do a poor job of interpreting your movements into gameplay, but I suppose there will always be players out there who enjoy the sensation of flinging their Wii remotes around and seeing someone on their screen take a beating, even if it’s in a terrible game. Oh yes, I said “Wii remotes” – this time around, players will either use one Wii remote in “one-handed mode”, or must grab two Wii remotes, as opposed to the original game’s Wii remote/nunchuck combo. I don’t see the point, the controls are just as terrible as ever here.

All told, the games here mostly fare pretty well. Golf is clearly the highlight, but Bowling and Baseball are solid too. Tennis is sadly not much better than it was back in the first game in 2006, and unfortunately Boxing is just as terrible as it ever was (hey, if you liked it, you’re entitled to your opinion, but I can only speak to my own experience).

As I already noted, all of the games have additional minigames, and I think Bowling actually gets the best of this improvement. And when it comes to changes to controls, really only Golf and Baseball are dramatically different, with the changes to Golf being a clear improvement, while the changes to Baseball are a “love it or hate it” sort of thing.

The other thing I should note here are the improvements to the graphics, with this game offering improved textures, resolution, and framerates over the original Wii Sports, with plenty of animated Mii characters in the stands in Baseball, nice reflection effects on the water in Golf, and just overall a cleaner, more realistic look for the locales throughout the game… but of course, still with the extremely simple cartoony-looking Mii characters.

Okay, now to get down to the nitty-gritty. I’m writing this review on the cusp of the release of Nintendo Switch Sports. With Nintendo soon to be releasing a sequel on a platform that isn’t dead, is there still a good reason to get Wii Sports Club on Wii U instead of just buying the newest game in the franchise and/or sticking with the original Wii Sports? Well, that depends on what you’re looking for.

Do you want updated versions of all the sports in the original Wii Sports? Because… this is technically that, although some games are more updated than others. Do you want the best version of Golf, and one that isn’t likely to be supplanted by the announced version that’s coming to Nintendo Switch Sports? Because the version included here is absolutely that. Do you want new versions of Boxing and Baseball (two games that are not currently announced for Nintendo Switch Sports)? This does have that, though it’s going to be entirely subjective whether these versions are improvements. Do you want entirely new stuff that wasn’t in the original Wii Sports? If you do, you’ll likely be disappointed with what’s on offer here.

I suppose, in a way, Wii Sports Club being a la carte ended up being a blessing in disguise. You can just go for the good bits (Golf, Bowling, and Baseball) and largely avoid the bad bits (Tennis and… well Boxing comes with Baseball so I suppose you might as well get both if you want either). As an updated version of Wii Sports, this is mostly pretty decent… but it also falls well short of what I think most players likely expected from a successor to a game that came out eight years prior. And while its value today in 2022 may be largely suspect, Wii Owners may want to get at least parts of this game, since they have the choice. Especially Golf.

tl;dr – Wii Sports Club is both the third game in the Wii Sports series and also a remake of sorts of the first game, with the five included games being the same as what was in the original Wii Sports (Tennis, Bowling, Golf, Baseball, Boxing). Golf is much-improved here, Bowling has some solid additions, Baseball has “love it or hate it” changes, Tennis is not much different than the original release, and Boxing is… still Boxing. All in all, this isn’t the triumphant upgrade many might have hoped for, and the odd pricing scheme is unnecessarily confusing. Still, it does mean you can get the parts of this game you want and ignore the parts you don’t. If nothing else, I highly recommend Wii owners get the Golf portion of the game, and Bowling is pretty good too.

Grade: B-

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