They really did it, and last night I witnessed it. On a frigid evening in New York City, the Ars Nova theater managed to stage a dozen short plays all named after Wi games.
Most of the âWii Plays,â as weâve noted before, had little to do with video games. Wii Tennis is about a man and woman who used to date running into each other. Letâs Tap involved a cardboard box â just like the game â but has nothing to do with rhythmic side-scrolling action. Tomb Raider: Anniversary involves Frankenstein.
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The plays are worth checking out even if just for the fun of figuring out how someone can make a mini-play called All Star Cheer Squad or Bob The Builder: Festival of Fun. The scene is video-gamey. A version of the Wiiâs multi-windowed menu screen is projected at the back of the stage, from where each play is loaded. A live band rocks through video-game-related tunes in between plays. The audience is informed that itâs time for intermission thanks to a projection of one of those Wii maybe-you-should-take-a-break warning screens.
Only the Wii could have produced this kind of thing and it stands as a perfect encapsulation of what the Wii has been.
Only the Wii could have produced this kind of thing. The Wii Plays stands as a perfect encapsulation of what the Wii has been, a theatrical summary of an entire console. A less insightful production would have presented Wii Plays that were all about motion control or Super Mario. For so many of us Wii gamers, however, that isnât what has defined the console. The defining qualities have been the Wiiâs proliferation of games, the smaller bursts of entertainment bundled into so-called mini-game collections, and the raft of absurdly-named games. The Wii has had its classics, but itâs also left the impression of a gaming platform full of small, scrappy, efforts â a grab-bag of unpredictable amusement. Turn that into a play and you get this.
Before the actors get to a play that specifically deals with the fact that Wii games might be too easy, youâll already know youâre seeing something thatâs based on the essential Nintendo experience. I canât promise youâll love the Wii Plays. But I can promise that the production has got the Wii DNA.
Hey, these arenât the Xbox 360 Plays. If they were, they probably would have included some 12-year-olds yelling slurs in your ear.
The Wii Plays will run From February 1-12 at Ars Novaâs theatre on 511 West 54th Street, New York. You can grab your tickets here
Pic of âWii Tennisâ by Carol Rosegg
