I've looked recently at how the MotionPlus could add new life to the Wii and bring back the interest of gamers who bought a Wii for what we hoped it would bring to the gaming world, but has failed to hit home with all but from a selection of titles.  If Wii Sports and the tennis game within it was symbolic of the Wii's launch and early days, EA's Grand Slam Tennis will hopefully be symbolic of the Wii's potential reinvigoration via the MotionPlus.

With Wimbledon just around the corner Grand Slam Tennis is set to cash in very nicely with the seasonal tennis fanaticism that affects swathes of the country every summer, and with EA's reputation for annual releases we can probably expect a similar situation for the next few years.  Also following EA tradition, Grand Slam Tennis looks licensed up to it's eye balls with all four grand slams included (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US), as well as centre court and 20 past and present tennis players.  Pat Cash has also been signed up to do the commentary and actual recordings from last year's Wimbledon are used for the in game audio.

Aside from the new motion sensitive abilities from the MotionPlus, Grand Slam tennis allows you to create and customise players and compete through the game to win the Grand Slam.  You'll also notice from the video and screenshots that although it looks fun, friendly and approachable as you'd expect from a Wii game, it doesn't look as cartoony and immature as the Mii's do  – there's good
graphical representation and realistic shapes, faces and movements from the players, even if the heads are oversized. 

Despite EA's willingness to take sports and carefully and systematically release a new game every year with just about enough improvements to give them something to catch our attention with, Tennis is relatively new territory for them, their last venture being International Tour Tennis 15 years ago with the Sega Megadrive.  And I think both tennis and Nintendo can take it as a compliment that EA have viewed the Wii and the release of the MotionPlus as a good opportunity to end their decade and a half hiatus from the Tennis game business.  The popularity of the Wii and the fact that the Wimbledon final was the most watched final for the last 20 years are both cited as reasons for them to get back into the game.  I'd also make a guess and say there's a decent overlap between Wimbledon viewers and Wii owners.

So it's got all the hallmarks of a quality licensed game from EA, released to coincide with Wimbledon and by the looks of it, at a time when tennis is at it's most popular for twenty years.  A gamer's reaction to all this? So what, show me the motion plus.  I don't care who you've got signed up to do the front cover, it's all down the racket control and motion plus for me.

Without a MotionPlus the controls are unremarkable and certainly nothing to shout about.  As in Wii Sports the direction of the ball will be determined by the timing of the shot.  An early forehand shot will send the ball left, a late forehand shot will send it right.  Also as with Wii sports, the movement is controlled by the AI. However, with a nunchuck plugged in as well you'll be able move the player with the control stick.  Not sure how this works with realistic swings.  A with a shot lobs, B with a shot does a drop shot.

You can see for yourself what the controls with MotionPlus are like in the video presented by Thomas Singleton (Producer of EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis Wii).  Movement will still be automated but there will be room for much more complexity and control over shots without having to combine swings with buttons. The demo video shows that there's good tracking of small movements with the remote, which are replicated in the game well and will hopefully lead to lots of depth, complexity and replay value to the game.

Am I excited about it? Yes, because it gives me the same sense of anticipation and excitement that Wii Sports did.  I'm also very, if not more, excited about the upcoming Virtua Tennis, which will also support Motion Plus, and will hopefully also bring new life to the Wii.