After a few years of flailing our arms at imaginary objects, Nintendo has released the MotionPlus, a little doodacky that clicks onto the end of your Wiimote and increases the accuracy of your flailing to the level that it was supposed to be back when the Wii was released. It comes bundled with Wii Sports Resort, which is a new collection of little games just like the original Wii Sports, only this time loosely themed around tropical island activities.

The most accurate game on the list is Frisbee throwing, fortunately with the brand-name licensed by Nintendo so there’s none of this Ultimate Flying Nonsense. The first game involves throwing a Frisbee on the beach to an adorable little Mii-doggy. You get a high score by throwing the Frisbee so it curves through balloons and then arrives towards the centre of a target where the doggy jumps up and catches it. Doing well enough at this unlocks Frisbee golf, where you progress along a golf-course but by using your Frisbee skills. Frisbee throwing is hard. Combined with the surreal accuracy of the MotionPlus, this is the most frustrating and rewarding game by far, probably best summed up by the old Frisbee law that says the Frisbee goes where your elbow points. After continually throwing the Frisbee off target, I eventually stopped in my living room and noticed my elbow pointing off to the side of the TV. Uncanny.

At the other end of the spectrum are the games like Wakeboarding, Power Cruising (Jet-skiing, not taking P and trolling for gays), Canoeing and Cycling. Wakeboarding involves holding the remote in front of you like you’re holding a wakeboard towbar, doing jumps over wake, and trying to keep it flat when you land. Jetskiing is exactly that, using the wiimote and nunchuck to steer and revving one of them to speed up. Canoeing is using it to paddle. Cycling is using each controller as a pedal and wiggling them up and down when you are pedaling, and steering when you aren’t pedaling. You’re required to monitor your Mii’s fitness, draft behind other cyclists, and come first. Now these games don’t really simulate their sports like some of the others, but it doesn’t mean they’re bad by any means. The actually gameplay itself is great; watching your Mii wakeboarding and learning to judge how to land the jumps is fine in itself, it’s just that there’s a bigger abstraction between what you are doing and what is being represented visually. If you’ve ever played games with a controller or a keyboard then this shouldn’t be a huge shock to you.

In the end, this is what motion control is really all about, and the real benefit of titles like Wii Play, Sports and Sports Resort is that Nintendo get to demonstrate how developers can get the most out of the tech. When most people think of motion control they want to swing swords around and shoot guns, and the Swordplay and Archery games show this off very, very well. These are the highlights of the package and if green tunics are your thing then this will be your fix for a year at least (or until the new Zelda, rumoured to feature proper motion controls, comes out) The main advantage to motion control, however, is that it can be used to simplify gameplay. Gone are the obscure methods of simulating the complex nature of swinging a golf club, launching a bowling ball, or going for a three pointer. The 3-on-3 basketball minigame is not particularly detailed in itself; you don’t control movement, just pass between three players before taking a shot. I was missing all the time until I clicked that the mechanics of shooting weren’t too far removed from button-pressing basketball games, but rather instead of an array of power meters, angle meters, and buttons to press it was all boiled down to deft manipulation of my wand, that in a basic but satisfying way gave me the feeling of timing and shooting a sweet three-pointer.

The Golf and Bowling get a re-master for Sports Resort, and if you ever found yourself putting way too much curve on a bowling ball or accidently smacking the shit out of a 2-foot putt then you’ll love the updated accuracy. Golf is a real joy to play now.

Tennis gets a re-hash as Table Tennis, and the extra control makes for epic rallies. The response is accurate enough for you to hold the paddle however you want, including the way Olympic players hold it so you can put some mad spin on the ball. There’s an “Air Sports” mode which involves flying a plane around the island collecting tokens and such, and makes up the semblance of long-term play. The each sport also has badges you can collect, ranging from basic stuff to defeating a swordplay opponent with a thrust to getting perfect scores on the archery range, bowling a turkey, or smacking your table-tennis opponent in the face with the ball. Sports Resorts is well worth the pickup price for the freedom of the new controls and the opportunity to get your skills together before Red Steel 2 comes out.