When Electronic Arts invited us to its gorgeous Los Angeles studio for its pre-E3 2007 event, the first Wii game we got our grubby little mitts on was EA Playground. Although we already knew the general concept, we couldn’t wait to check out the game ourselves, experience how it played and see how it utilized the Wii controller.
“We want it to be simple, like Wii Sports.â€
These were the first words out of an EA rep, who walked us through the one mini-game demo and played two-player multiplayer with us. That rep and EA should be happy to know that EA Playground immediately reminds us of and feels like Nintendo’s own Wii launch game. Indeed, the game is easy to pick up and play but still offers enough depth to keep you coming back for more.
On hand at its pre-E3 event, EA demoed just one of a handful of mini-games that will be in the final version of the game when it ships later this fall: dodgeball. EA told AMN that it has not finalized the number of schoolyard activities that will be in the final game, but we counted seven on the menu screen – right before our kind rep entered into some dodgeball action.
From the get-go, the mini-game reminds us of Wii Sports: Tennis. The game controls with just the Wii-mote, for starters. Early in development, EA decided it wanted to go this route for all the schoolyard games in the title for one simple reason: they want the game to be easily accessible to as many different kinds of people as possible.
Unlike Wii Sports: Tennis, however, your on-screen character is not controlled automatically – you get to maneuver the character with the D-pad. Going into Wii Sports, many wanted this kind of control for games such as Wii Sports: Tennis, so now they’ll get to see how it works. Initially, controlling your character around the court while trying to catch and dodge incoming balls, not to mention throw them, feels a bit like trying to pat your belly and rub your head at the same time. It takes some time to get used to. However, based off our short playtime with the game, once you get the hang of things, it can be pretty fun.
Like all Wii games – or most – Playground uses the Wii-mote’s motion controls. In order to throw a ball, once you have your hands on one, you simply motion throwing the remote forward. Thankfully, we never loosened our grip on our Wii controller, so we didn’t throw the remote into the widescreen LCD the game was running on. Likewise, we didn’t notice any other journalists losing control of the remote, either. By pressing the A button and motioning a throw, you do a super throw, which moves considerably faster than a normal throw. Unfortunately, the speed at which you move the controller when throwing does not translate into your in-game throw, so the throwing mechanics work more like a button press in the sense that they’re fixed.
Thankfully, even if you suck at dodgeball in real life (don’t let your childhood gym memories scare you away), chances are you’ll do just fine playing the Wii iteration of the sport. The throwing controls seem responsive, and we never had trouble getting the Wii-mote to recognize our movements. Occasionally, picking up the ball – B trigger – was less responsive than we liked, but the same trigger worked fine when trying to catch incoming flying balls. Pressing the B trigger just moments before a ball slams into your character will cause your character to catch the ball, getting the ball-thrower out. Additionally, shaking the remote to either the left or right will cause your character to dodge in that direction.
While EA Playground is being designed to be “simple†and “easy to pick up,†EA assured us there is some depth for those that want it. For instance, little techniques, like being able to jab the Wii-mote forward at the beginning of each round to rush forward and grab a ball before your opponents, offers a considerable advantage to those who use them over those who don’t.
The title features a simple graphical style, similar to MySims. The game does support both 16×9 and 480p and was indeed running in both at the event.
EA Playground is scheduled to hit retailers later this fall. We’ll have more information on the game as we get it. For now, head on over to our media page to view brand new screens.
