Kicks, a sort of volleyball/soccer hybrid is played by ninjas. At least, I assume these kids are ninjas, as I never round house kicked a volleyball over the net and into a small goal. Again, movement control here is very limited, but as you have to watch over two characters and worry about kicking, passing and blocking, the game is very involved and can be quite fun.

Paper Racers is basically just a paper airplane obstacle course. Movement is controlled by tilting the Wii remote, and there's no need to worry about the plane losing gas, as it just keeps going until it crashes or the course is finished. Along the way, things like fans will help your momentum, while other things such as mini twisters can cause your plane to crash if not avoided.

Darts is an on the rails type of shooter where the Wii remote is basically used as a gun to hit targets and other kids. At the end of the stage you'll have to take out a boss who has some tough skin against the darts. While the game is much different than the other mini games, it offers little in originality.

The last game of the bunch is Slot car racing. Basically a toned down version of the Mario Karts game, it's meant to duplicate the electronic racing tracks that seem to pop up every holiday season. The AI seems to almost always trail through most of it, then decides to put up a fight just on the last lap.

While single player does offer its own challenges, by far the best way to playground is multiplayer. As most games are easily picked up by even younger kids, its a great game to play with them. The games in general are actually geared towards a younger crowd, and while the gameplay with most of the games gets old very quickly, they are sure to hold the younger players' attention for a much longer time. A lot of my multilayer experience in the game was actually with a younger kid. Due to his abundance of energy, one of our first games of Kicks I was effectively “schooled” on the playground. He would continuously score and block my kicks by repeatedly swinging the remote whether the ball was next to his guy or not. This, was admittedly a bit annoying to me at first, as it takes out the skill factor. On the other hand, it makes it accessible to the younger crowd by not being so strict on timing issues.

While an older player will quickly get bored with this title, I think this is a great game for families with kids. It is very easy to pick up, and simple enough for the whole family to enjoy. Even if the games themselves aren't all that great, EA Playground really fits into the Wii's social console attitude.