Let me start by saying that I don't like writing negative reviews. Usually I try very hard to find at least a few nuggets within everything I review. So to say I was disappointed in Go Play City Sports is an understatement.
I should also say I'm not a huge console gamer. We've had a Wii now for almost a year and we love it, even though we haven't picked up many games for it yet. Lately we've been playing Wii Sports Resort quite a bit and it's a lot of fun. The controls are well thought out, the games are pretty straightforward to play, and it works with the built-in Mii avatars you create for other games.
So when I had a chance to check out Go Play City Sports, I was thinking it would work in a similar fashion to the other basic Wii games we have. None of the games appeared too far out of what Wii Sports or Wii Sports Resort had already done. Go Play City Sports includes stickball, kickball, street hockey, handball, jump rope, and shootout soccer.
But when I had a chance to fire up the game and play it, I was sorely disappointed by poorly-designed interfaces for creating avatars and actually playing the games themselves.
To get started playing the single player games, you have to create a new player profile. Creating the profile posed a challenge for me. Maybe I'm getting too old or something. Typing a name took forever and once I "accessorized" my avatar, I couldn't figure out how to move on. I tried every combination of buttons I could think of before I hit the "+" button and finally saved it. Oh, and you'd better really like your avatar because you can't go back and change it later.
Once you have an avatar, you can go to "My Street" where you can access the various games available. Wander around until you find a kid on the street, hit the "A" button to talk to them. If you want to play the game there, you can say yes or you can hit the "B" button to play another time and try the next kid.
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