Going Back To The Pack - In Game

It's happened to me many times in the past. I get a new system specifically for one game that I really want, play it, and then there's the long, anguished wait for the next big thing for the system. Such has happened to me with my Nintendo Wii, as I'm stuck at the end of Zelda, I've beaten Super Paper Mario, and nothing else for the system has thus far captured my interest.

Thus I return to the pack - in game, Wii Sports. I had a session tonight of one baseball game (I won 2 - 0, but damn I wish it was more than three innings), 4 bowling games (with a new personal high score of 178), and three golf games (I played beginner, intermediate, and expert, getting par on the intermediate).

I had a blast with it and realized that this has happened before. When I got my Odyssey 2 for Christmas in 1981 I got the game Alien Invaders - Plus with it, because it was the Odyssey 2 version of Space Invaders, but it was easily beaten after a few tries and I found myself killing time after that with the pack - in game Speedway / Spin - Out / Crypto - Logic. I made the most of this pack - in game until a month or two later when I got K.C. Munchkin.

I got The Legend of Zelda when I purchased my NES, but it was only after I beat that game that I discovered how awesome the packed - in Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt game was.

With the Turbografx 16 it was all about Bonk's Adventure, but I found myself drawn to Keith Courage in the Alpha Zones not long thereafter.

Not all pack - in games have done this for me, though. In the case of the Super Nintendo, I bought the system exclusively for the pack - in game, Super Mario World. With the Sega Saturn, I only dabbled with Virtua Fighter but mostly zoned out on the reason I bought the system, Panzer Dragoon.

The pack - in game seems to have gone out of style with the newer systems until it was revived with the Wii. While I will certainly admit that Wii Sports doesn't have a lot of meat on its bones, I've found some replay value in getting higher scores and trying to make "pro" in some of the games to see if there are any rewards.

It might not be enough to captivate me for long, but for the time being, it will do. I only hope that there are more Wii games on the way that offer some more in-depth sports applications and more unique gameplay elements. The potential of the Wii has hardly been tapped, and the waiting is hell.