by S. Graveson

Created on: January 14, 2010   Last Updated: January 15, 2010

When someone looks at the Wii's game catalogue they see game upon game upon game of "shovelware", games that have been released looking for a quick profit on the Wii's success. The sort of games that feature labels like "includes 25 fun games" and other such comments that may as well include the description of "Will keep children entertained for 25 minutes between them". Sadly with so few stand out video games for the console it's these sorts of games that you'll see a growth of and with EA's Playground you may actually end up with one of the better games of it's type. Despite the fact that EA are known, perhaps unfairly, for making sub standard games they are known as being one of, if not the biggest video game manufacturers in the world at the moment, so you know they have something good going for them (even if it is mostly licensed sports titles) as seen by their massive success.

So what is "EA's Playground"?
The game is broken into multiplayer and single player mode with the single player mode broken into several different parts of the playground with the difficulty of the games getting tougher and the environment changing as you get further on. The "Campaign" starts with you selecting a character (all little children pre-built into the game) and playing the various mini games to unlock more features to use. Though the campaign is relatively repetitive as you play the same games over and over it does have a few hours of life in it and works as a training mode for the proper fun part of the game, the multiplayer. The multiplayer mode sees up to 4 players playing the various mini games that are on the disk, either 1v1 or in teams (though some games are only 2-player) in what becomes a fun and innocently addictive short term entertainment filler.

The disk features 7 mini games for players to compete in and this is where the bulk of the game time is spent. We'll take a look at them in a minute, but as they are the bulk of the game lets look at the other bits of it, the sound and graphics both look limited, in a day and age where video games have CD level sound and near-realistic graphics this is a let down. The game has a more cartoon-like feel to it, which although graphically appealing for kids is a huge let down in the sound stakes limited little tunes and things like "beeps" and little squeals are pointless. So onto the games which range from racing to dodge ball this is where the game really steps ahead of it's rivals.

The games are:
Dart Shootout-A paint ball

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>