Wii Play: Motion - Two-Player Treasure Twirl Partner Mode

This is a capture of me and a friend playing the Treasure Twirl Partner Mode of Wii Play: Motion for the Wii. This was recorded directly from my Wii (not the Wii U). I'm player one and Drew is player two.

After Nintendo released the Motion Plus accessory alongside Wii Sports Resort in 2009, I started keeping my eye out for additional Motion Plus games. In 2011, Nintendo then released the sequel to Wii Play, which was Wii Play: Motion. Although I (and probably tons of other people) already owned four Wii Remotes, Nintendo only sold this game as a bundle with a Wii Remote Plus, which drove up the retail price.

I had to wait a little while, but I eventually found a seller on Amazon who was selling this game brand new without the bundled controller for a decent price. So I got the game around a month or so after it was released. I ultimately found the game to be rather enjoyable, but some of the mini-games felt incredibly strange and quirky.

It turned out that Nintendo had farmed out development of the Wii Play sequel to various third parties by holding a competition to see who could produce the best mini-games. The winners were then selected for inclusion in the final game. This means that Nintendo didn't even feel like creating a sequel in-house despite the massive sales of the first game.

A few of the game modes suffer as a result, and some of them don't even seem to utilize the Motion Plus accessory much at all since they appear to rely on the basic tilt function of the standard Wii Remote. Overall though, I think Wii Play: Motion is a pretty good sequel with a few innovative uses of Motion Plus.

In this video Drew and I completed both stages in the Treasure Twirl Partner Mode. Treasure Twirl certainly makes clever use of the Wii Remote, but it feels a bit awkward because you have to simultaneously focus on rotating and tilting the controller as if it were some sort of hand-cranked winch.

In the partner mode, each person controls one side of the basket, and you have to work together to lift it off sea floor while trying not to spill the contents. Based on the complex controls, it's actually pretty difficult to coordinate with the other person, but it's a neat idea overall. There are only two stages though, so this mode is incredibly short and doesn't have much replay value.

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the Wii's component cables at 60 frames per second.

We're using Wii Remotes with Motion Plus.