Wii Sports
Wii Sports
Cozy up and snuggle down, for tonight's story is all about your time in Wii Sports.
You find yourself in a vividly colourful world, with simple shapes determining the landscape around you. Parts of circles rise out of the horizon to form hills and hillocks, while further afield broken triangles dominate the sky-scape, jutting out in all directions as monumental mountains that are eerily beautiful but equally overbearing.
As you focus back to your immediate surrounding area, you notice the soft circles which form the tree canopies around you. The smoothness is consistent and pleasingly soothing. You feel at rest and calm, the sun gently smiling down serenely at you, its rays warming every exposed part of your skin. As you raise your hand to feel the sun you notice that your whole arm is in the shape of an oversized hand. You immediately recognise yourself as your avatar from your Wii console. You are your Mii and you start wondering what game you've found yourself in.
Before you have a chance to run through the games in your head you hear a familiar voice.
"Hey you!" You hear. You turn around and find yourself looking at your younger sibling. They have made it to the Wii world too. You're ecstatic to see a familiar face and are about to ask where you are before your sibling answers in anticipation.
"We're in Wii Sports! We get to play all the games in real-life! Well, not real-life, but you know what I mean!"
You're very excited! You've played all of the games in Wii Sports, but your favourite has always been bowling. You know your sibling hates it when you play bowling because you always win. But they always win at tennis, so it evens it out. You both enjoy baseball, but find it hard to get a decent hit on the ball. Your parents love playing golf with you and with their friends, but no-one really likes boxing. You hope, whatever your mission here is, boxing won't feature.
You turn again to your sibling to ask what they are doing here, but they're gone. You have no idea where to find them or what you're doing. This isn't like the stories before, where there is a job for you to do. This is a competitive game where you have to face-off against other people.
As you ponder you hear a fanfare of trumpets coming from somewhere not too far away. You quickly head towards the noise in hope of some clarity.
Having pushed through the soft lines of tall grass and parted the brushed bushes, you are now overlooking a light clearing that has been roughly divided into a hexagon. At the centre there seems to be a stage of some sort.
You know what's coming; you know you'll be expected to compete in the five Wii Sports events. You start making your way towards the clearing hoping to meet your competitors.
"ALL COMPETITORS TO THE MAIN STAGE!" A voice echoes around you as you near the stage. Suddenly your sibling appears, as well as two more Miis. You instantly recognise them as your two best friends, Milton and Marlow. They start waving and take their places on the stage. Waving back you speed up and take your position on the stage awaiting the instructions. Almost before you're ready, the voice is back outlining the instructions and rules for the day's games.
"WELCOME COMPITITORS TO THE 'WII SPORTS SPORTS DAY ON WII FOR SPORTS TODAY'"
Everyone chuckles a little bit. You hear one of your friends joking the name would make a silly initialism or acronym.
"It should have been 'Sport On Wii Sports' or SOWS," your sibling says. Everyone agrees, chuckling a little more.
"YOU SHALL ALL COMPETE IN FOUR EVENTS. THE RULES ARE SIMPLE. THE WINNER OF EACH GAME WILL WIN ONE POINT.
"THE EVENTS WILL BE GOLF, TENNIS, BASEBALL AND BOWLING. BOXING WILL BE RESERVED FOR ANOTHER DAY.
"THE FIRST EVENT IS GOLF! PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE GOLF AREA AND TEE UP YOUR BALLS!"
You all leave the stage and hurry to your positions which are clearly marked by your colours. Your colour is purple, your favourite colour.
As soon as you've all placed your balls, a klaxon signals the start of the game. You have to complete two holes; a long par 5 and a short par 3. You line up for the first, long par and swing your club. The swing was good, but you weren't lined up properly meaning you hit the ball slightly off the centre. The ball rockets into the air as you watch it eagerly hoping you hadn't hit it too far off the centre. You breathe a sigh of relief as the ball corrects itself and soars gracefully towards the fairway. Your sibling's and your friends' balls also find the fairway. You all manage to get the ball on the green on the next shot.
One by one you take your shots. Your sibling goes first and manages to get the ball in the hole for a birdie! Marlow is up next. She lines up her shot and gets a birdie too! You're up now, and you focus on the hole. You're not far and only need to tap it lightly. You know Milton is up next and he loves golf and putting and is even closer to the hole than you. You take the shot, but you've hit it too hard! You miss and the ball jumps over hole and on to the other side of the green. You're now further away than before, but you have to make this shot. You take a deep breath and focus again. You hit the ball. This time you've hit it with hardly enough power! The ball moves a little, before stopping. You take one last swing and finally manage to pop it in, but you are now one shot down on a bogie.
Milton easily gets a birdie too. The scores are now even between your sibling, Milton and Marlow, while you trail behind two shots. You have to make it count on the next hole.
You all line up. You are to go first. You can see the flagpole from your elevated position. You don't think too much this time, striking the ball squarely. It's a great shot and the ball lands beautifully next to the flagpole. It starts rolling closer and closer and stops centimetres away! You're happy with that shot, knowing it'll be easy to knock in for a birdie. As you think about the next game you hear a cry of joy! Your sibling has just got a hole in one, Milton has missed and Marlow is just a little bit further away from your ball. The game ends - your sibling has won the first point! You all celebrate the win and prepare for next event.
"PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BOWLING ALLEYS"
You're up and away before anyone; you love bowling! And you know this is your chance to win a point. But you also know that Marlow loves bowling too, and he's also very good. You hope to get a perfect score, all strikes! You've done it before and know you can do it again. It's whether or not Marlow is able to do the same.
The Klaxon goes and you all start bowling. You get strike after strike after strike. Marlow is close behind. Milton and you sibling are behind. As you expected, this is a game between you and Marlow. As you enter the ninth frame you and Marlow are close. He's only 12 points behind. You still have a perfect score so far. You pick up your trusty ball and make your way to the alley to take the shot. As you move towards the line and start to swing your ball, you slip. You watch the ball tear down the alley towards the pins. You hit eight of the ten pins, leaving the two furthest pins to the right up. It's an easy spare, but you're annoyed that your perfect run is over and can't afford any mistakes.
You throw the spare and for the penultimate frame you throw another strike. Your score is now 250 and Marlow is on 230. He could tie, but he can't win. All you need to do is knock down one pin. You line up your shot and you get a strike! And then another! Because you'd hit two strikes on your last shot, you get a final throw. You take the shot and only manage to knock down 6 pins, but you're happy. You've won the round and the point! Marlow gives you a big hug, congratulating you on your win.
"PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BASEBALL PITCH - THE NEXT TWO EVENTS WILL BE TEAM EVENTS"
For baseball you've been teamed up with your sibling and you'll start as fielders. There will only be one innings, so making sure you don't strike out is going to be the most important thing.
You're both a little nervous because it's not your strongest game, and you know that Milton loves baseball and is surprisingly good at it. But you and your sibling have a point each, so if you win this game, you'll win the whole day's events and you won't have to compete in tennis.
On the other hand, if Milton and Marlow win, they'll win one point each, meaning you'll all be in a tie with one point each.
The Klaxon goes and you are pitching against Marlow. Your first throw goes wide for a foul ball. You throw again, and it goes wide again! You reposition yourself on the mound, trying to think of a new strategy or tactic and decide to throw a curve ball. It flies towards Marlow and he hits it dead smack in the centre. The ball flies off into the crowd for a home run.
Milton steps up to the plate and hits the first ball thrown to her. She manages to get to third base, ready to pounce.
Marlow comes back to the plate and hits deep ball into left field allowing Milton to score a run. Marlow is now sitting on second base and needs Milton to make a good hit so he can get a third run for the team. But Milton misses every shot, striking out. Milton and Marlow end with two runs as you take your place on the batting team.
Because you and your sibling haven't played this much, it doesn't take long for you to both strike out. You appreciate you may not be great at all sport and are disappointed that you both struck out, but you're very happy for Milton and Marlow.
"PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE FINAL EVENT - DOUBLES TENNIS"
You and your sibling have been paired up again for this last event and you are so relieved. Not only do you know that they are excellent at tennis, but you're happy to playing the last game with them against your friends. As you take your positions, you agree to serve first. It's the best of five, so whoever wins three games first is the winner.
The final klaxon goes and the game begins. You serve an ace. 15 love. You serve again and win the next point after a short rally. 30 love. You serve and hit the net. You take your second serve and just about get it in and win the point. 40 love. You take your final serve and manage to get another ace. First game goes to you.
Milton is up next to serve and the game continues. There is some fantastic tennis in this game, with Milton and Marlow really finding their stride. Your sibling is playing excellently at the net, volleying well and communicating well to you. Before you know it you're at deuce and looking for the advantage. Unfortunately you loose the advantage and consequently the game. It's now one game each.
Your sibling is now ready to serve, and each one of the serves is an ace! Your kin has a way of serving, and if you don't know what it is, it's impossible to return a serve. It's now two games to one. You have to win this game to win.
But somehow Milton and Marlow have found a new gear and they win the next game! It's all on the last game now as you tie two games each.
Marlow serves and it leads to a long rally, with you at the net and your sibling at the baseline. You try to win the point, but Marlow returns a volley with a drop shot that is impossible to reach. 15 love. The next rally is shorter, with a smash volley from your sibling at the net. 15 all. But the next two points are lost as you and your sibling miscommunicate. It's now match point for Milton and Marlow and they're one rally away from winning the day's sporting event. Marlow throws the ball up to the air and it screams over the net for the perfect serve. Milton and Marlow have won! They win a point each leaving the final scores as one for you and your sibling and two for Milton and Marlow.
"THE GAMES ARE OVER - CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS - YOU MAY NOW PLAY WHICHEVER GAMES YOU LIKE AGAIN IF YOU PLEASE"
You all gather around together hugging and laughing, reminding each other of the day's games and your favourite moments. You've had a wonderful day with your sibling and friends and enjoyed being active in sport again.
But you are tired, and you need to get some rest, for the next time you wake up you'll be in a totally different world. You say farewell to your friends and your sibling, who hugs you tight, and walk back towards the hillock from where you came. You push through the bushes and tall grass again, waving back before settling down and listening to the wind whistle past.
You close your eyes and await your next adventure...