So, you thought Wii Sports couldn’t possibly have anything new to offer? Well, during these extraordinary times, anything is possible. Including standing on the surface of the water and swinging your club from out of bounds, it seems.
Needless to say, anybody with a modicum of interest in gaming has probably sampled Wii Sports. By virtue of being packed in with the monstrously successful Wii, it’s actually the best-selling console exclusive of all time. Back in 2006, it was an absolute revelation, the epitome of Nintendo’s family-friendly, everybody’s welcome approach to gaming.
As Nintendo Life reports, YouTube’s Plyd823, a Wii Sports enthusiast and speedrunner, has found a curious new phenomenon: a glitch that renders all concepts of ‘out of bounds’ and the very laws of physics themselves moot.
Unlike some tricky glitches (such as the deceptively difficult new glitch in Mark Kart 64 that allows the player to crash into a wall and essentially skip laps), it isn’t that complicated to perform. What the player needs to do is ensure their Wiimote loses connection mid-swing.
If this happens, your Mii character enters a 'disconnected' state. When you reconnect, it inputs a new hit, which tricks the game into thinking your shot landed on the fairway, even if it actually ends up out of bounds.
This means that it’s possible to putt away from the surface of the water, among other ridiculous things. Here’s Plyd823’s demonstration of this oddity in action:
Today, it’s a little dizzying to think about just how influential this simple title was. The Wiimote and motion controls in general were such a novelty at the time that Wii Sports became an essential party title.
Brief and simplistic as the original may have been (Wii Sports Resort in 2009 and the unfortunate Wii U’s Wii Sports Club in 2013 would expand upon the formula somewhat), its quirky takes on bowling, boxing, baseball, tennis and golf are fondly remembered by families around the world. While it’s high time that Nintendo Switch gets its own Wii Sports experience, fans can only hope that such a title would become anywhere near as iconic as the original. Bizarre issues like this being discovered fifteen years after release? Shine on, you glitchy diamond.