I’ve had a Wii Balance Board lying around since Wii Fit Plus came out, and while I still use it for weight tracking on Wii Fit U every so often, I thought why not actually use it for some games which supported it beyond Wii Fit’s own minigames!
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
Family Ski
This was brilliant.
Developed by the Ridge Racer team, it’s set in a Japanese style ski resort and the developers intentionally chose skiing because it’s a multi-generational sport in Japan. The Japanese version includes music that would be played at Ski Resorts in Japan in the 80s, like Yumi Matsutoya’s Blizzard.
And that really sums up the game - it’s as much about the feels as the reals, in that the sense of “being there” in the ski resort is fantastic. There’s racing, there’s ski lifts, the only music you hear comes out of the speakers placed around the resorts.
It’s also one of the best enclosed open world vehicle games I can think of, in terms of balancing how much there is to do with the scope of the mountains.
You’ll be looking for bears, competing in slaloms, delivering food, finding a lost child, or just passing through each section of the mountain trying to beat its high score.
Crucially the balance board controls feel pretty natural. There’s a sequel (Family Ski and Snowboard) but I haven’t tried it yet. Go Vacation also came after and includes a ski resort as one of its four locations.
Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll
Went into this with apprehension after the poor reviews but it’s clear the entire game is very much designed to accommodate shifting your weight around the balance board, so while the stages are larger and more simplistic by series standards I thought it still offered a good challenge in terms of making you go through an entire world on a set number of lives. It also brings about the return of warp gates from Super Monkey Ball 2, and switches, so I’m surprised it was so poorly received.
What impressed me the most is the phenomenal sound design. Each world has its own theme, and as you progress through its 10 stages the theme also progresses and develops:
Then at the end you get a vocal version of the entire song that plays during the credits:
I’m convinced that if this game was released at the arcades it would have been very well received, but being a home release meant that it had all the baggage of the GameCube games despite it remaining true to its roots.
Those are the two games I’ve played this year. Which ones stood out to you, or which do you want to try one day?