Nintendo’s Press Conference was so obnoxiously anti-core gamer that the company’s president, Satoru Iwata, has recently apologized for leading gamers on. Aside from the unshown GTA: Chinatown Wars and, to a lesser extent, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii Sports Resort was the only other game to, for lack of a better phrase, make a splash.

Coming bundled with WiiMotion Plus, a tool that turns the WiiMote into what people think the WiiMote should be, the game hopes to reinvigorate gamers who purchased the console for the original Wii Sports while adding a peripheral that could make even more complex games on the console possible. The three games shown were a sword fighting game, a Waverace clone, and a Frisbee throwing minigame. I can’t see the second two catching on in the way that bowling, tennis, or golf did, but the third caught my eye.

On the show floor I soon found myself standing in line to mess around with the WiiMotion Plus and Wii Sports Resort, mainly to try out the sword-fighting demo. After the chaotic rhythmless jazz that Wii Music demonstrated, I hoped that this would be the opposite. I could care less about riding a jetski or throwing a Frisbee to a dog, but the Wii finally living up to the Lightsaber promise it made years ago was too much to keep me away.

Once I finally got my hands on the controller I…ended up playing the dumb dog game. The Nintendo representative insisted, and I was tired, so I just did what he said. For what it was it worked, showing off the controllers accuracy as I twisted my wrist and moved my hand up and down, testing the tiny attachment’s sensitivity. After we finished that demo up I skipped over jetskis and made my way into battle as Duel of the Fates chanted in my head.

My first inclination when presented with the new controls were to test it; moving my hands in different ways and seeing how the game reacted. For the most part it worked, but it wasn’t exactly 1:1. Maybe .75:1, maybe .9:1, but not 1:1. When the battle actually started, though, it didn’t matter, because I was in a freaking Lightsaber duel. Sure, the music wasn’t there and there weren’t any of the signature Star Wars sound effects, but for the first time I saw how Lucasarts could successfully make a Star Wars game unlike any we had ever seen on the Wii. It made me wish that Nintendo had gotten this out sooner to allow them to make the Force Unleashed and Clone Wars games worth purchasing on the system, but alas, they were simply wagglefests.

I’ll pick up Wii Sports Resort when it is released, no question about it, even if it is just for the WiiMotion Plus attachment and the sword game. Those who fear it being anther Wii Boxing, with chaos reigning over skill should not fear, for the new attachment is a more elegant tool for a more civilized age. It comes out in about a year, so be ready, and stay tuned to Gamervision for more news on the title.

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