50 Fun Facts About Wii Sports

Which computer-controlled Mii is the champion and final opponent of boxing in Wii Sports?

Matt guards the boxing title and also coaches the training drills, and his toughness later turned him into an internet meme.

Wii Sports first starred characters from which Nintendo franchise before testers preferred Miis?

Super Mario characters filled the roster until player feedback favoured Miis. Even the computer opponents were then built with the same Mii creation tools.

Which attachment must be plugged into the Wii Remote to play boxing in Wii Sports?

The Nunchuk acts as the second fist, which makes boxing the only one of the five sports that cannot be played with the remote alone.

Wii Sports Resort is set at which fictional tropical getaway, which players first reach by skydiving?

Wuhu Island became a recurring Nintendo location, returning in Wii Fit Plus and as the entire setting of Pilotwings Resort.

Wii Sports was bundled with the Wii in most regions but sold separately in which country?

Japan, like South Korea, had to buy Wii Sports separately, yet it sold more than 176,000 copies there in its first two days.

Which tennis champion played a match of Wii Sports tennis against host Conan O'Brien on Late Night?

Serena Williams faced the host with a Wii Remote instead of a racket, one of several comedy-show appearances for the game.

Which built-in Wii application lets players design the personal avatars used in Wii Sports?

The Mii Channel came installed on the Wii, and Wii Sports was the first game on the console to import the characters made there.

After Wii Sports players sent controllers flying, Nintendo issued thicker versions of which part?

Wrist straps were reissued almost twice as thick after remotes slipped out of players' hands during energetic swings.

The avatar name Mii, made famous by Wii Sports, blends the word Wii with which English pronoun?

Me is the hidden half of the name, because a Mii is meant to be the player's own stand-in on the screen.

Wii Sports bowling leagues famously sprang up among residents of which kind of community?

Retirement homes and senior centres formed bowling leagues, part of how the game won over older and more casual players.

Which Mii is the tennis champion of Wii Sports and also serves the balls in tennis training?

Elisa tops the tennis ladder with a rating of 2000, yet the same Mii is the single weakest opponent in baseball.

Which Mii captains the champion team that awaits the best batters in Wii Sports baseball?

Sakura leads the last team a rising batter meets, though she never steps into the boxing ring at all.

Which Mii is the lowest-rated opponent in Wii Sports boxing, usually the first one a new player meets?

Ryan opens most boxing careers as the weakest fighter in the game, though the same Mii is a far stronger baseball player.

The boxing champion of Wii Sports returns as the champion of which Wii Sports Resort sport?

Swordplay crowns the same Mii again, and he duels at sunset with a purple sword that winners can then unlock for themselves.

What prize does a player unlock by defeating the boxing champion of Wii Sports?

Silver gloves are the champion's own trademark, and beating him lets the player's Mii wear a matching pair.

Which Nintendo of America president convinced hesitant colleagues to pack Wii Sports in with every Wii?

Reggie Fils-Aimé argued the game would be key to the console's success, winning over company leaders who had doubted giving it away.

Wii Sports Resort was the first game to require which add-on, sold in the box with it?

Wii MotionPlus let the remote track twists as well as swings, which is how the sequel could add spin to a table tennis shot.

Which extra event was demonstrated for Wii Sports at E3 2006 but left out of the finished game?

Airplane had players steer through rings against the clock, and the idea finally took off three years later inside the sequel.

Wii Sports is the best-selling game released for a single console, with about how many copies sold?

82 million copies were sold, helped by the fact that most Wii consoles came with the game already in the box.

Wii Sports sums up a daily test of balance, speed and stamina as which personal score?

A fitness age between 20 and 80 is awarded after three random training challenges, and each Mii may take the test only once a day.

Which Mii always partners the tennis champion in the final doubles match of Wii Sports?

Sarah plays beside the champion and is rated 1900 herself, which makes the final pairing the toughest doubles team in the game.

What title is added to a Mii's name after reaching 1,000 skill points in a Wii Sports event?

Pro status is not permanent, though: the game takes it away again if the rating slips back under 1,000.

What is the highest grade of medal a player can earn in the training games of Wii Sports?

Platinum sits a step above gold, and each of the five sports offers three training challenges to chase it in.

Which Nintendo designer said the avatar idea behind Miis began as a Famicom Disk System demo?

Shigeru Miyamoto recalled a demo where players drew a face onto a character, an idea shelved because nobody could turn it into a game.

Fears of bullying once kept playable Miis out of which Nintendo series, where they later debuted as fighters?

Super Smash Bros. dropped the idea for its 2008 Wii entry, and Miis finally joined the roster in the editions released six years later.

Which Nintendo social-simulation game casts Miis as characters with their own voices and personalities?

Tomodachi Life follows Tomodachi Collection, which began as a fortune-telling game whose avatar maker was borrowed to create the Mii.

Wii Sports Club tracked club scores and let players chat through which Nintendo social network?

Miiverse let rival regional clubs swap posts during and after online matches, a feature lost when the network itself shut down.

The Nintendo 3DS can generate a Mii automatically by analysing which kind of input?

A photo of a face taken with the handheld's camera is matched to the closest features, which the player can then fine-tune by hand.

Nintendo Switch Sports introduced which new avatars, with full arms and legs, alongside classic Miis?

Sportsmates have more detailed hair and faces than Miis, and they compete in a sports complex called Spocco Square.

Which of these sports made its series debut in Nintendo Switch Sports?

Badminton arrived with volleyball and football as the three brand-new sports, while the bowling lanes and tennis courts were familiar.

Which Mii, a top baseball player, is one half of the very first doubles team faced in Wii Sports tennis?

Miyu shares that opening match with the future boxing champion, yet in baseball she bats for the champion's own team.

Which Mii, a CPU opponent since the original Wii Sports, is the table tennis champion of Wii Sports Resort?

Lucía rules table tennis with well-placed shots, a leap from the first game, where she ranked among the ten weakest tennis players.

Which Mii leads the champion basketball team in Wii Sports Resort, always first faced at night?

Tommy and his two teammates run faster and jump higher than anyone else, and beating them hands the player's team the same boost.

What cosmetic reward does a Wii Sports bowler earn by passing 1,000 skill points?

A star-patterned ball replaces the plain one, whichever of the four ball colours the bowler happens to be using.

In Wii Sports tennis, which part of the action does the game handle automatically for every player?

Running to the ball is left to the computer because the designers cut anything that complicated play, leaving players only the swing.

Which Nintendo composer, also the voice of the dinosaur Yoshi, wrote the music for Wii Sports?

Kazumi Totaka is known for hiding the same 19-note melody as an easter egg in many of the games he scores.

The unofficial Wii Sports tennis tournament Wiimbledon was held in a bar in which New York borough?

Brooklyn bar Barcade hosted the 2007 event for 128 competitors, many of whom turned up in costume.

At which annual ceremony was host Jon Stewart caught playing Wii Sports tennis on a giant screen?

The Academy Awards audience returned from a commercial break in 2008 to find the host mid-match with a young performer, a staged joke.

The high-definition remake Wii Sports Club was released for which Nintendo console?

Wii U owners could aim pitches and line up golf shots on the GamePad screen, and each sport could be bought on its own.

Before Wii Sports Resort, table tennis was a pointer-controlled minigame in which other Wii compilation?

Wii Play gathered the motion demos that did not fit the sports theme, and it was sold bundled with an extra Wii Remote.

Before Wii Sports, the last sports game packed in with a Nintendo launch was a tennis title for which console?

Virtual Boy buyers got a tennis game in the box in 1995, and no Nintendo launch included a sports title again for eleven years.

Which former Canadian prime minister beat comedian Rick Mercer at Wii Sports boxing on television?

Jean Chrétien won the bout on the Rick Mercer Report, one of the moments that put politicians in the game's boxing ring on television.

At which 2007 ceremony did Wii Sports win six of its seven award nominations?

BAFTA Video Games Awards went to it for sports, innovation, gameplay, multiplayer, casual, and strategy and simulation.

Which American news magazine ranked Wii Sports as its number one video game of 2006?

Time put it first on its list of the ten best games of 2006, and The New York Times named it game of the year.

All sixty computer opponents from Wii Sports return in Wii Sports Resort and which minigame collection?

Wii Party sorts them into difficulty tiers instead of skill points, with the old boxing champion placed in the Master tier.

Years after its launch, Wii Sports was sold on its own under which official re-release label?

Nintendo Selects finally put a price tag on a game that most owners had received inside the console box.

As a player's skill rating climbs in Wii Sports tennis and boxing, what grows larger on screen?

The crowd swells as points are earned and reaches full size once the player passes 1,000 skill points.

After beating a Wii Sports champion, where does a congratulatory note for the player's Mii appear?

The Wii Message Board also logs each day's result from the game's daily body test, so the console keeps a running diary.

On The Colbert Report, a Mii of Stephen Colbert boxed a Mii of which Speaker of the House?

Nancy Pelosi's Mii stepped into the ring in a clip on the show, part of a run of late-night cameos for the game's boxing mode.

Which sensor inside the Wii Remote does Wii Sports rely on to read a player's swing?

An accelerometer senses each swing, while the gyroscopes that measure rotation only arrived in a later add-on for the remote.