If Go Vacation were a suitcase, it would be overfilled and about to break. Namco tried to cram in a lot of gaming elements into one package. With regards to their effort, I must bring up an old cliché, "Less is more". However, don’t take this message as being one of absolute negativity. Go Vacation has its strengths. The developers tried to create a "Jack of All Trades" type of game for the whole family, but in the process they lost the potential to create a great game. 

As the title suggests, the game is a vacation. Players are whisked to Kawawii Island for some fun in the sun. The island has four locations for players to explore. The first area available is the beach resort. Within that location, players will find the typical beach-style games to mess around with. The next area is the city-mall. Urban games such as racing and skating can be played here. 

Once players are done with the ground level, they can head up to the mountains. Kawawii Island is not only host to beaches and malls, but a snowy mountain as well. Players can pick up snowball fights and skiing within this portion of the island. Lastly, the forest lake resort makes up the final portion of Go Vacation. Here, players will find outdoor games such as tennis or clay shooting.

When traversing through the resorts, players can walk on foot or use vehicles to move around. Each area has its own modes of transportation. For example, in the beach, players can use jet skis in the water or ATVs on land. In the city area, roller blades and skateboards are available. Unfortunately, the resorts are not connected and thus, players will have to use a menu to travel to the different areas of the island. However, within an area, players are free to look around and travel at their leisure.

With over 50 mini-games to play, players might think that would occupy a lot of their time. Realistically, half of the games were enjoyable, while the other half were not very fun. For example, the skeet shooting had a nice touch. It was simple and elegant. Meanwhile, golfing was clunky and unresponsive at times. Players are going to have to sift through the chaff to find golden grains hidden in Go Vacation.

Practically every aspect of the game relies on motion controls. For some portions of the game, it makes sense. Aiming and shooting is cumbersome on a traditional control scheme. However, the mistake of Go Vacation is that Namco forces motion controls when it does not need it. For instance, skating should be a simple matter of pressing a button to move forward and using the analog controls to turn. In Go Vacation, to move forward means moving the Wii controller plus Nunchuck up and down to ramp up the skateboard. To turn, the player must move the Wii controller left or right. From horseback riding to surfing, almost all the vehicles use this type of control. Needless to say, players may get winded after a few minutes of exploring and playing some mini-games.

For the single player, a lot of play time will be devoted to unlocking every aspect of Go Vacation. Stamps are rewarded to players that play the collection of games. When players collect stamps, the game rewards them with unlockable features. Access to the resorts is unlocked by participating through the mini-games. The customizable villas have to be unlocked too. Even some of the different clothing in Go Vacation is unlockable. For obsessive gamers, this aspect of the game may keep them busy for a while. For the single players that do not want to devote a lot of time, their best bet is to play with friends. That alone makes Go Vacation a lot more enjoyable.

As it stands, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort remain the kings of the genre. Go Vacation had the potential take the crown, but Namco forgot to design around simplicity and elegance. Instead of being a deeper version of Wii Sports, Go Vacation hovers between charming and clunky. Because of that, it is hard to recommend the game with some enthusiasm. If players are looking for a game to play with some friends, Go Vacation is a good purchase. If players are looking for a deeper version of Wii Sports, then Go Vacation is not the game to look for. 

GameDynamo's Score for Go Vacation (Wii)

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