The Wii is often labeled as the “kiddie console,” but more often than not those claims are nothing more than empty insults thrown by hardcore gamers. It’s ironic, then, that “EA Playground” is inspired by and features kids — but has a good chance of appealing to both kids and casual gamers alike.
“EA Playground” is essentially a collection of mini-games wrapped in a role-playing “meta-game” wrapper. This meta-game compels players to level-up their schoolyard character in such important categories as slot car racing, tetherball and dart-shooting. Once players achieve maximum ranking in each category, they are crowned playground champion and the main campaign ends.
The actual leveling up is left to players accumulating and spending marbles, which act as the game’s currency. Players earn marbles in part by doing simple kid-style tasks like giving classmates high-fives, catching butterflies or shooting baskets — all of which are done via the Wii’s motion-sensing Remote. But the majority of marbles are won in schoolyard-themed mini-games that comprise the bulk of the gameplay in “EA Playground.”
“EA Playground” includes seven mini-games games total: Dart Shootout, an on-rails first-person-shooter a la Time Crisis; Paper Racers, a flight simulator in which players tilt and maneuver the Remote to steer a paper airplane through the hall; Kicks, a soccer/volleyball hybrid; Slot Racers, a super-basic racing game; Dodge Ball; Tetherball; and Wall Ball.
As players complete enough rounds of each mini-game and defeat the accompanying bosses, they unlock more-advanced versions of each game, new skills, more marbles and even new gameplay areas including a stadium and a park. And, like the Super Monkey Ball series, the progress players make in the single-player mode unlocks new elements in the multiplayer component.
Fortunately, each mini-game itself is available for multiplayer play from the very beginning, a facet that kids and casual gamers will appreciate. Kids especially will also appreciate the fact that they can customize the abilities of their character (chosen from four boys and four girls) as the game progresses, depending on what mini-games they want to “specialize in.”
As a single-player game, “EA Playground” definitely runs the risk of only tickling the fancy of younger gamers. But as a multiplayer game, “EA Playground” looks to tap into the Wii’s casual-gaming phenomenon and really bring adults back to their days as playground king or queen.
