At the moment it seems only Nintendo and EA are the ones who get the idea of the Wii. EA have taken this new product on board and have taken a refreshing new approach to their yearly updates like FIFA and Tiger Woods by introducing family settings and tutorials. EA have rightfully seen that most games at the moment tend to be for the older generation and with the recent release of Boogie and My Sims they seem to be trying to amend and nothing does more towards addressing the balance than EA’s Playground.

Playground is a new approach to children’s gaming, it does not talk down to them, but at the same time, does not overcomplicate the game and through this concentrates on fun and variety. Stripped down this is a set of mini games with varying degrees of difficulty. Bu with a well designed main hub and lots of other little ideas, this is so much more than a compendium.

You start off in the school playground, and after the introductions and selecting your character (sorry, no Mii’s to choose from), you are able to walk around using the dpad on the Wii-mote and approach other children who are playing games. They will then challenge you to their specific event, if you win you will get some marbles and a sticker to put in your book. There is only a handful of events in total, but where it lacks in quantity, the overall quality of each level is well thought through and as you play against the challengers and their dares, each of the levels layout will change.

As well as a large area to adventure around, looking for hidden marbles and a few simple tasks there are the main games which consist of Wallball, where you hit a ball against a wall by swinging the Wii-mote, a bit like squash, shooting range, where you use foam bullets, a bit like NERF to shoot opponents and targets, slot car racing, which is controlled using A to accelerate and by twisting the Wii-mote to change lanes and also paper plane where you hold the Wii-mote like a plane as it glides through an assault course and finally there is swingball, a volleyball-football game and dodgeball.

Each level utilises the Wii-mote very well, enabling almost anyone to get to grips with the basics. My personal favourite is the paper plane level, using the Wii-mote to guide the plane through a busy classroom or dense woods is really fun, and the later levels do offer a challenge.

The main aim of the game is to fill your sticker book, with each win you will earn a sticker, the more you earn, the more levels will open up. When you take on players dares and win, you will also earn marbles, which is the currency for this game, earn enough marbles and you are able to purchase sticker upgrades which help improve things like your slot car as well as enabling you to purchase new paper planes.

EA have handled this game really well, as I can imagine parents are always concerned by what their kids are playing, this is a great game to give to a new player without the fear of them being introduced to death or wrong doing.