Nintendo Wii Review: Go Play Lumberjacks

In the world of Wii Party style games, there are those games that will be remembered and those that will inevitably be forgotten. Go Play Lumberjacks is one of those games that will soon become a distant memory. Well, that’s only if you even heard of it. Still reading?

The first thing you notice, after powering on your Wii and entering the Go Play Lumberjacks icon to begin gaming, is that the load time just to get the game going is exceptionally long. Gamers will see an electric saw spin… and spin… and spin… until finally you can begin playing. You won’t even hear music until the saw stops spinning to signal the initial load is complete. Usually load times appear after you actually enter chose to begin playing the game, and not just to get to the menu screen.

There are two types of gameplay: Free Play and Tournament. In Free Play, gamers choose from one of five activities: Sawing, Axe Throwing, Climbing, Chopping and Water Events. Each event has a few styles, only one of which is playable while the rest must be unlocked. I started my Lumberjack lifestyle with sawing. Gamers get to choose one of four characters at first, the typical Lumberjack named Jack, a plucky-blond-southern bell named Jill, a one-legged pirate named Bart, and a ninja named Nozawa. Outside of the one-liner you get before and after a game, there is little difference to the actual character. There are no attributes, like in Mario Kart, to define one characters skills over another. So, you can pick whatever persona you like. There are also twelve other characters to unlock.

Most of the games feature simple instructions, none of which actually take advantage of the Wii-mote dynamics. So on average you will find yourself button mashing the A-button or excessively waggling Wii-mote. One game actually requires doing both at the same time, which may be the worst Wii dynamic I have ever seen. For instance in the Sawing game, you have to button-mash the A-button for speed boost, while simultaneously waggling the Wii-mote to saw. If you’ve got a Wii Balance Board you can lean left and right to saw, which doesn’t really make sense for this game.

Use of the Wii Balance Board is actually a major gripe. Gameplay involves leaning left and right activities that just don’t make sense. How does leaning left and write relate to sawing a tree limb? Why they forced this type of control into the game doesn’t make sense. It would have been better if the designers had left it out of the game and come up with more interesting gameplay.

Other games have complex button pressing schemes. One tree limb-chopping event requires you to hold the Wii mote horizontally like an old school NES remote and use the A-button, 1-button and 2-button to chop off various pegs that represent branches.

I actually liked a few of the character VOs in Go Play Lumberjacks. For instance hearing Nozawa yell, “Ninjas always win,” in a stereotypical Kung-fu movie voice was fun.

Go Play Lumberjacks is really a collection of several mini-games. You’d thing that with the robust amount of characters to unlock, new games to play and trophies to earn you would want to keep playing. Alas, the Waggle and button mash combination may be one of the worst dynamics you’ll ever experience and will have your hand begging you to relinquish the Wii-mote for an ice pack. The overall gameplay lacks the playfulness to keep children engrossed in playing. If you’re going to design a game like this, more playfulness should be added to the characters’ mannerisms. Instead you will only get a feel for each character from their one-liner said to open and close each mini-game. I could have forgiven this but the game control scheme, both on the Wii-mote and Balance Board, I simply can’t endorse.