Nintendo Wii Play: Motion release date

By Tom Phillips Published 28 April, 2011

Packaged with red Wii Remote Plus.

Party game sequel Wii Play: Motion will launch across Europe on 24th June.

Nintendo's new set of mini-games makes use of the Wii Motion Plus add-on. Wii Play: Motion comes bundled with a Wii Remote Plus, which has the add-on built in.

The original Wii Play is one of the best-selling games of all time. What the heck? It's true - the original included a Wii Remote for free. This time around Europeans get a red flavoured Wii Remote Plus. North American gamers have the title a week earlier and are gifted a black coloured remote instead.

There are 12 tasks on offer, including "Wind Runner", which dubiously combines roller skates and running around a windy race track holding an umbrella. Angling the Wii Remote Plus controls speed and direction.

Other activities see players winching up deep-sea pirate booty in "Treasure Twirl", balancing scoops of ice cream atop a cone in "Cone Zone", and skimming stones across a lake in "Skip Skimmer".

The original Wii Play attracted droves of gamers in the Wii's heyday with the offer of an ever-useful extra Wii Remote. Five years later and considering a comparatively slim amount of titles that make use of Motion Plus, Wii Play: Motion may be a much harder sell.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword launches later this year and has Motion Plus controls as standard. Maybe it's time to upgrade early?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 12 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • L0cky #1 1 year ago

    /tumbleweed

  • Geowolf #2 1 year ago

    Considering that the Stream will be b/c with Wii and GC why would I waste money on this instead of waiting a year and putting the money towards a system that will allow me to play these games and be up to date for a further 4 years or more. Nintendo really don't get that the cat is out of the bag and tearing down their curtains.

    Time to release Stream for this Christmas cause no one in their right mind is gonna waste money on hardware for a dated and dying console.

  • Golgo #3 1 year ago

    That Nintendo should still be fobbing off motion-tech demos as full games at this stage in the console's life is pretty depressing.

  • Buenos_Estente #4 1 year ago

    Released about a year too late

  • jablonski #5 1 year ago

    Stream? Is that what it's called?

  • Geowolf #6 1 year ago

    @jablonski

    One of the rumoured names. I'm guessing referring to streaming games to the controller screen.

  • Rack #7 1 year ago

    That's just the working title, Nintendo are sure to try and replicate the success of the Wii and call it Puu.

  • Lee_Morris #8 1 year ago

    This game should have come out with the motion+ add on. Horribly late. Nintendo really are dropping a lot of balls lately

  • Golgo #9 1 year ago

    Stream, ey? Drop the 'r' and they might be onto something big.

  • Mister-Wario #10 1 year ago

    I don't understand why Nintendo are releasing what amounts to a tech demo for a peripheral that has about 2 good games, however many years after the peripheral was released in the first place, right before the next console is due to be announced.

    Seriously, what the hell, Nintendo? Or is this to get more Motion+ out there for Skyward Sword?

  • natureboy #11 1 year ago

    They should call the next console the "Revolution" which was working title for the Wii (and i would have prefared that name)

  • LazyDan #12 1 year ago

    They should call the next console Dingleberry Mango Farts for all the good the predictions and desires will inevitably amount to. Though my money's still on Wii+

  • PinktotheLast #13 1 year ago

    To my knowledge, Skyward Sword will be the first 'proper' game for the Wii (i.e. hardcore), around which motion controls have been explicity implemented. Galaxy could have been made without motion really.

    Which is pretty amazing, 6 years in to the Wii's life!

  • TheEarlOfZinger #14 1 year ago

    Or pretty shocking imo.

    My wii is in a cupboard and will likely stay there until skyward sword. And that's if I can be bothered at all.

  • sonicyoda #15 1 year ago

    Still looking to get a Motionplus for Conduit 2 and Red Steel 2 so if this is reasonably priced I might buy. £30 sounds about right, none of this £45 nonsence that we got with Wii Sports Resort.

  • jablonski #16 1 year ago

    Brown steamer

  • Mr.Spo #17 1 year ago

    For all those of you who don't get the point in this game, maybe that's simply because this game isn't for you? There are plenty of Wii owners that will have only bought Wii series games or 'casual' games, and this could quite easily be their next purchase. It won't be a hit like Wii Play was, but I wouldn't bet against it being a multi-million selling title.

    As for the logic of releasing a title like this when their next console is about to be announced, the Wii can co-exist with the next machine and that's likely Nintendo's plan--the Wii has made profit from day one and leaving the machine on the market is easy money for Nintendo. There'll be plenty of low income homes in Europe and North America that won't have moved on from their PS2s yet, and by cutting the price and introducing a player's choice range, Nintendo can easily sell the Wii for some time to come. I don't think for a second Wii will match PS2's success--for a start Nintendo don't have the kind of distribution services in developing markets that Sony do--but the Wii can easily achieve lifetime sales in the 110-130 million range.

  • CallousB #18 1 year ago

    I wish Nintendo would stop bundling these "free" controllers.

    Sell the game by itself for £19.95 and I'll buy it.

  • rudderless #19 1 year ago

    @Golgo I imagine it'll be priced similarly to Wii Play and be of more interest to those who would like another Wii Remote Plus. Not sure too many will buy it for the 12 minigames, though that's a more substantial tally than in Wii Play. Personally, I would quite like to try it, simply because not enough Wii games make use of MotionPlus, and those that do have been mostly excellent.

    @Lee_Morris Surely it's better to have a remote with MotionPlus built in rather than using the unwieldy add-on?

  • Mister-Wario #20 1 year ago

    "There are plenty of Wii owners that will have only bought Wii series games or 'casual' games, and this could quite easily be their next purchase".

    But I think most people are arguing that the Wii isn't exactly lacking in minigame compilations. Why exactly is this necessary?

  • metroid455 #21 1 year ago

    why nintendo why ?, no seriously why.
    xenoblade chronicles is the only Wii game that i want this year,
    I wish they'd localise The Last Story then it'll be two games i want for the Wii

  • tossum #22 12 months ago

    Tingly