I spent months kicking myself for not buying a second Wii remote when I bought my Wii. Solo Wii play is just sad, and I really wanted a player two, maybe even a player three and four. So for the past several months, I’ve been hitting up the usual places – Future Shop, Best Buy, EB Games, Wal-Mart. They’re always sold out.

What’s a girl to do? Stop going to the mall and start seeking out some independent game retailers, that’s what.

There’s a little game place around the corner from Showcase HQ I like to check out from time to time, and one evening after shopping for cheap wares at Dollarama, I decided to stroll through the shady little mall to see if this game store might possibly, perhaps, maybe have a Wii remote. And what do you know – they did!

There it was, across the store, sitting crooked and lonely in the middle of a pegboard full of crappy gaming accessories. I gravitated across the store, wondering if anyone was going to help me; all the clerks were busy. The store was pretty packed, so I became paranoid that someone else might be waiting to purchase the same Wii remote. I was pacing, try to catch a glance from a clerk. Finally, one of them caught my desperate look.

I tried to contain my excitement and blurted out, “Wii remote, please.” Then he casually mentioned they had Wii Play. Woohoo – even better! Wii Play comes with a Wii remote, so I was totally willing to cough up an extra $15 to grab a game too.

Wii Play is worth what you pay for it, but I actually like it. Well I like parts of it. I’m not the kind of gamer who likes to settle in for hours of play, so I tend to like games like this anyway. The game is made up of nine mini-games; you can earn medals for getting the best score, but that doesn’t really seem to mean anything. Also, you can do the two-player thing with all these games.

In a nutshell, here are my thoughts on each of these mini-games:

• Billiards – Probably the worst computer pool game ever invented.
• Charge! – You ride a cow, you knock down scarecrows, it’s a race – I love it!
• Find Mii – This one is my favourite for some reason. You find matching Miis, or the fastest Mii, or your Mii – It’s just good fun.
• Fishing – I like the idea of this game, but it’s really hard to control.
• Laser Hockey – It’s Pong 2007. It’s wicked fun for two players.
• Pose Mii – Pose and match. It’s okay.
• Shooting Range – It’s Duck Hunt 2007. It’s pretty repetitive, but highly enjoyable.
• Table Tennis – Boring, but kind of fun for two-players.
• Tanks – Tremendously annoying without the nunchuk.