Nintendo yesterday reaffirmed its laser-like focus on the so-called casual gaming market, announcing two games for the Wii that will probably be huge hits: Wii Sports Resort and Animal Crossing: City Folk.
Unlike multiple third-party knockoffs, Wii Sports Resort is a true sequel to the popular Wii Sports. The game will focus on summer-themed outdoor events and will be the first title to use the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which plugs into the base of the Wii Remote to boost the range of detected motion in the hardware.
Scheduled to release next spring, Wii Sports Resort includes Sword Play (fencing), Power Cruising (jet skiiing) and Disc Dog (throwing a Frisbee to a dog). The game will also come packed with the new Wii MotionPlus accessory and a Wii Remote Jacket for no additional cost.
Animal Crossing: City Folk, meanwhile, will ship this holiday season and be the first Animal Crossing game for Wii. As with the original GameCube version of Animal Crossing, players will be able to improve their community, chat with the locals or just spend the day fishing and collecting fossils. However, the deep integration of online options will provide a sense of interaction that’s greater than the original game.
Players will be able to use WiiConnect24 to bid on their friends’ items at the auction house and, better yet, to visit their friends’ towns online and chat in real-time with them using the new WiiSpeak microphone. The WiiSpeak microphone stands atop the TV and allows Internet voice chat among Wii Friends — not just from person to person, but from room to room. The WiiSpeak microphone will be sold separately for $29.99.