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The Wii is currently chock full of party games. I guess you can give most of the credit, or discredit if you will, to Wii Sports that came bundled with the system. For better or worse Wii Sports not only sells the system, but remains one of the more prominent titles the Wii has. That's not saying the Wii doesn't have a handful of great titles, but let's just say the majority of the games that are adequate outweigh the number of games that are stellar. Well another party title hits the shelves and I'll just let you guess where EA Playground fits in my prior statement.

EA Playground looks to take over where Wii Sports began almost a year ago, by supplying an array of quirky sports titles that are easy to execute, but fun enough to revisit many times over. Well the ideas were good enough, but the lack of depth in most of the mini games in EA Playground will not give provide enough interest to keep gamers coming back for more.

Advertisement Using My Sims style characters, but unable to incorporate My Sims characters into the game is what you'll get as far as visual style is concerned. EA Playground has a wide color pallet, decent character models, and most of the mini games lend themselves to duplication on the videogame screen quite well. There are some issues with the frame rate which stutters and slows down on occasion. While you'll never come across times where it generally affects the game play, the fact that it is even there is a disappointment. Audio is mostly forgettable with background songs that are more annoying than catchy, sound effects that are too sugary for some to take, and the extremely limited voices leave much to be desired in creating unique personalities for your characters.

EA Playground is a Wii Remote experience only, so you can put that nunchuk aside. EA Playground offers seven fun titles such as dodge ball, darts, tetherball, and slot cars, but none really capture the addictiveness of any of the 5 original Wii Sports titles. This is not to say that the games offered aren't engaging, especially in multiplayer, but you definitely won't find yourself playing this title a year from now unlike Wii Sports. There are some fun single player aspects of the game where you go to new locales, unlock collectables, and more, but the multiplayer is where you will find yourself spending most of the time on this playground.

While EA Playground is a fun title that will appeal more to younger audiences, it's hard to really recommend this outside the party crowd. The lack of depth in the single player and the short variety of the multiplayer games will be hard to grasp to anyone who is not looking for that next party title for the Wii. With possibly more mini games, and especially more lengthy addicting games, EA Playground could see a second life. May I suggest kickball, softball, or flag football as options for your next title? You may get a warmer response with better competitive sports. After all, you are EA, the king of sports gaming, right?