Finally, someone decides to put out a collection of old school mini-games for the Wii. Ok so this isn't new ground, but Nintendo tells us this is supposed to be the social console, so party games should be at home here on the Wii, right?
EA Playground recreates the schoolyard exactly how you remember it; dozens of kids waiting around for you to come up and challenge them at their own game, none of them actually going to class. The game begins with picking out an avatar of sorts, almost the same as your Mii, but you can't actually use your own Mii. Whatever your choice, it doesn't matter, it's purely for show. Starting in the schoolyard, the game is played by walking up to various schoolmates and challenging them to their specific game specialty; Tether ball, dodgeball, wall ball, kicks, paper airplanes, darts, or slot car racing. Winning the challenges grants a sticker or some marbles. Marbles are collected in order to purchase more stickers from the school grounds local Sticker-King. Stickers, in turn, will give specific boosts to different games, for example, a new paper airplane, or being faster in dodgeball.
Once a few of the local challengers in the schoolyard are beaten, the game opens up a new area called Goby park, and eventually a stadium and a small wooded area. As you progress through the different areas, the challengers get tougher and tougher. By beating all the other kids on the playground, the chance to challenge the Sticker-King and bring down his heavy handed rule over the sticker empire becomes available.
A few of the games are solid and offer a fair bit of replayability, while the others leave a lot to be desired. Tether ball is simple in design, but can be one of the harder games to master. The game is purely about timing, and can get rather intense against a tougher player. The quick pace makes this one a lot of fun, unless you do something like tear your rotator cuff.
Dodge ball is the game that gets pushed the most on the packaging. While it is a lot of fun against a human opponent, against the CPU it can get a bit stale, even at the higher levels. The dodgeball feel is recreated fairly well and games can last awhile, teetering back and forth in favor of one team or the other.
Wall ball is probably the worst game of the lot. It's much different than the extra violent game I played as a kid. Simply put, the ball is bounced off the back wall and players take turns hitting it back to the wall. Theres no control over the game aside from hitting the ball and how high it's hit. Movement is done on its own, and due to the fact that it's so easy to catch a ball on the return to hit it back, games can really stretch on for much longer than you may want.
