World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions -- 2007 Edition (Wii, 2006)

Tournament of Champions isn't a good poker-teaching tool in the way that, for instance, Stacked was. The game's load screens do occasionally toss you some decent nuggets of info that might be useful to new players, but in-game, the tips that scroll across the screen are beyond obtuse. "Poker is a game of position," says Chris Ferguson. Gee, thanks, Jesus! However, one thing the game does offer that might be useful for non-video-game poker play is a tool that unlocks once you've played a decent number of hands. By pressing a button, you can bring up a menu that shows you a wealth of statistical data, such as what your pot odds are, based on the number of people already in the hand; the odds of making a specific type of hand, based on what you have versus what's on the board; which cards are your outs; and the percentage of hands you have played in and raised prior to the flop. For those who find the more mathematical aspects of poker dizzying, this handy little tool gives you a better idea of where you stand. It won't win hands for you, but it might keep you from losing a few.


In case you're waiting for us to get to the part where World Series of Poker takes advantage of the Wii's unique motion controls, you can keep waiting. This game makes no attempt whatsoever to include motion controls of any kind. It just maps all the basic functions to the buttons on the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and that's it. Granted, motion controls in a poker game probably wouldn't make a ton of sense. If you can actually think of a good way to include motion controls in a middling poker game, feel free to share them with us, because we couldn't think of any. Maybe pushing the remote forward to go all in, or something? OK, maybe not.


Unfortunately, on top of not including any motion-control features, the Wii version also lacks any form of multiplayer. The online mode found in every other version of Tournament of Champions is gone, so this version is strictly a single-player affair. Half the fun of the game is in playing people online, so without it, the game feels rather hollow. Not to mention that Activision is charging $10 more for this version than the other versions currently available. If that sounds like a bad deal, you're wrong--it's an awful deal.


Another huge drag is the game's presentation. It's tough to make an exciting-looking game of poker, considering that players at a poker table don't do much beyond shifting around in their chairs and occasionally screaming wildly when they lose or win a big hand. The basic in-game graphics aren't terrible, though they're fairly bland, and the game lacks the dynamic presentation of one of the TV poker broadcasts. You'll also notice some ugly clipping issues with character models from time to time. Overall, the Wii version looks like a slightly improved update of the PlayStation 2 version, which is to say that it doesn't look like the developer did much to take advantage of the Wii's hardware capabilities.

I love the game. Texas Hold em is one of my favorite things to do and this game is so much fun. You can design your own person and play for points and in money tournaments. It really is a lot of fun. I'm glad I purchased.