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Wii

North America

Go Vacation

by Nathan Mustafa - June 9, 2011, 3:34 pm EDT
Total comments: 2

Wii would like more party games.

If there's one thing that makes traditional gamers groan, it's the glut of party games that have surfaced on the Wii in the wake of Wii Sports. Most new party game releases are mentally written off by gamers at large before they are even reviewed. To be honest, I had low hopes for Go Vacation, especially since it tears the concept of an island resort filled with mini games right out of Nintendo's hands.

Perhaps that is why it struck me as somewhat promising in a, "I'd play this if I were a kid," kind of way. From what Namco showed me, Go Vacation adds to the Wii _____ formula by tying mini-games together with an open world mechanic. Players can traverse four large resorts across various terrain types.

In the city resort, players can ride about on a skateboard, take photographs, and initiate mini-games. Tricks performed along the way to an event of choice will contribute to the unlocking of game modes and items. Traversal of the environment appears to be fluid and enjoyable, though the world isn't tied to any sort of continuous narrative. The open world appears to be primarily included as filler, but the ties to unlockables within the game are hopefully enough to make it worthwhile.

The 50 mini games are what Wii gamers will expect from a resort-centric party game. Hang gliding, tennis, scuba diving, volleyball, surfing, sky diving, skiing, snowball fights, whack-a-mole variants, etc. Each mini-game looks to be executed with surprising competency. Some corners are cut for certain sports, for instance there weren't any real physics applied to the hang glider and one could simply soar continuously upward without any assistance.

The unlockable villas are a touted feature. Players can earn the use of a vacation home, that can be decorated using items earned through successful play of the mini games or stylish traversal of the environments. Considering that there isn't any story, or depth to your character for that matter, the need to engage with the world at this level is questionable though.

Go Vacation surprised me. While I would wait until after playing a retail copy to say if I think it is actually a good game, I can say that it appears to have everything one would want from a party game and even a little bit more. This four-player, Motion Plus enabled party game launches soon on the Nintendo Wii.

Talkback

BlackNMild2k1June 19, 2011

I completely glossed over this review when it appeared, but I just ran across a video of this game and I have to say that my interest is piqued. This looks like a nice casual all inclusive resort sports game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxKoQQrugw0&feature=youtu.be
&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqyrFE0xHe8
It made me think "this is what you would get if Nintendo had combined WiiSports/Resort,  WiiWinterSports (if they ever made it), Endless Ocean, Animal Crossing, Riiiidge Racerrrrr!!!, a modernized T&C Surf (NES) and many other games all into one all inclusive 4 Seasons Island Resort game. Throw in some fishing and you have everything."

There is ATV's, Rollerblading, planes, helicopters, jet skis, playing with your dog, deep sea diving, photo taking, surfing, horse back riding, white water rafting, tubing, dog sledding, race cars, sky diving, water guns, skiing, snowball fights, tennis, Old Western target practice, minigolf, light saber duels, dancing, carnival games, a cruise ship and more. But that's just what they show in the videos and you can do tricks during some of the stuff (rollerblading and jet skiing).

Looks like it could be fun, especially if there is any depth to most of the activities. I look forward to a review of this game now.


edit:
GT has Volleyball, rafting, Watergun & free run gameplay vids from E3
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-go-vacation/715910


http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-go-vacation/715767
There are also trains, jeeps, snow mobiles, snow boards & treasure hunting.
4 player split screen and Motionplus + Balance Board Support.


This is the resort sports game of all resort sports games here. There is no other sports minigame collection to top what's included in this package. If they put forth the effort to polish this games like the Wii____ games, then this could be a big seller.

Yeah, we got a random chance to talk with the developers, and the game does look pretty damn cool... it basically supercedes every Wii Sports type game out there, with some Grand Theft Auto thrown in.

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Go Vacation Box Art

Genre Party/Parlor
Developer Namco Bandai
Players1 - 4

Worldwide Releases

na: Go Vacation
Release Oct 11, 2011
PublisherNamco Bandai
RatingEveryone
jpn: Go Vacation
Release Oct 20, 2011
PublisherNamco Bandai
RatingAll Ages
aus: Go Vacation
Release Nov 17, 2011
PublisherNamco Bandai
RatingGeneral
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