Looks like Nintendo are going to be aggressive with this game, hopefully this'll help the game reach its intended audience and raise awareness:

Iwata Asks said:

...if your Wii U is connected to the internet and you have at least 1.3 gigabytes of free space15, Wii Sports Club comes in to your Wii U automatically through SpotPass.

One day, you suddenly have the Wii Sports Club icon, but if you couldn't play right away without paying first, that would be a hassle too, so from the moment you start the game, you can play for the first 24 hours for free.

So every time there's a new release, there's a free 24 hour trial period. So you don't miss out if you start early. As a matter of fact, it's a better deal if you actually start sooner.

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wiiu/wii-sports-club/0/4

I like how they reworked the controls and integrated the gamepad, it's not just a slapdash HD remix.

The method of delivery is also genius. If you said "ok" to receiving spotpass content after the last formware update, and you have 1.3GB of free space, Nintendo will download Wii Sports Club, including the free 24hour trials, to your console, with a notification.

Will this be as big as the original Wii Sports? Hell no. But it will be a damned good time.

@anon_mastermind

But someone told me they slapped it together in a couple of months.

Wii Sports in HD is actually quite tempting. I might snag Bowling at least! Doubt I'd go for Tennis again (unless very upgraded control wise) and for sure not Baseball or Boxing, but I could be convinced for Golf, that was a lot of fun.

Nice! I'll get bowling for sure, and possibly golf and baseball. I hope they eventually integrate the events from Wii Sports Resort into Wii Sports Club. Can't wait!

EDIT: Think we should keep track of who has what once it launches in the OP? Just an idea.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a few of these games loaded on the Wii U, especially since I gave my copy of Wii Sports Resort to my nieces and nephews (assuming that they bring over some of the Resort games as well, eventually...)

How big is the default memory on the Wii U? I wonder how much space I have left. Might need to get some more soon.

@ludist210 Not a bad idea, I can do that.

@-JKR- Since they're using Motion Plus for all the games, then I have hope that the controls will be improved and work nicely for all games.

@Zero The numbers I recall hearing are that the Deluxe has 25.4 GB storage for games and data, and the Basic has 2.7 GB for games and data.

@Mop it up

True enough, but one could debate Bowling and Tennis worked "well enough" already. So if they upgrade any, it would probably be Boxing and Golf, I'd imagine.

@Zero

It's something like 25 GB of available flash memory. External drives are pretty cheap. I think my Seagate was less than $90 for a 1TB. Works like a charm!

@-JKR-

I thought tennis's controls were pretty weak. Lots of times it would misread my swings as a backhand or sometimes not register at all. I played it just recently and that was the case. It's night and day compared to table tennis:s controls, which were spot on. So I think we could see a pretty big improvement, although not as much as if they added nunchuck control to move around. I understand that would take away from the simplicity that made the game so popular though.

I'm in for bowling, for sure and probably golf. Maybe tennis. I have hope they'll some day remix Table Tennis from Wii Sports Resort, then I'll never need any other game ever.

Automatic download is a great idea. So pumped for this. Seems like there's a bunch of new Training Games, in addition to the online and improved graphics and controls. Do you guys ever go to Gamexplain, the video-based site from Andre Segers (formerly IGN)? It's pretty informative and Nintendo-heavy. Here's his preview of Tennis and Bowling from the Japanese version:



I've only been downloading the things that I NEED to download. I wonder if I'll run out of internal space before the end of the Wii U's life...

New ad for it in the UK. I think it's brilliant.

@ludist210

lol. That punchline's gonna get them in trouble with a few people, but kudos to Andre Agassi for being a great sport. That's a really good commercial and, frankly, actually gives me a smidgeon of hope that online Wii Sports might catch on if word gets out about it. I mean, that just looks like good old fashioned Wii Sports fun, 2006 styley.

I'm totally up for some Tennis/Bowling/possibly Golf matches with you guys after this comes out.

Ok, what the hell is this:

Just received a response from Nintendo in regards to Wii Sports Club: "The EU version will only play online with European and Australia."

— Darren (@darrenkerwin) November 6, 2013

I hope there's been some misunderstanding here. What's the point of the internet when we impose arbitrary borders on the communication? It's bullshit.

@r_hjort

I read that too, and I hope it's inaccurate. I know time zones and schedules probably wouldn't allow a lot of people from EU to play with US, but seriously? Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has online play between regions (although that had to be patched in), so why can't this?

@ludist210
Seems we're out of luck. The official press release is up on GoNintendo right now, and it says:

teh pressrelease said:

[3] Users can compete against other players from across Europe, Russia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

@r_hjort

You don't want to play against me away! My slice will cut you up real nice!

For some reason I thought this was coming out in December. Super excited to download this!!

@Abdooooo
Easy for you to say now that you know you won't have to face me!