Wii Sports high scores

posted Mar 15 @ 12:06 PM by Jason Kottke · gift link

Wii Sports high scores

I don’t spend enough time playing Wii Sports to claim mastery in any of the events. I’m hovering around 2000 in tennis, I’ve bowled a 248 (twice), shot an 8-under in 9 holes of golf, and got my only gold medal in “Hitting the Green” with a distance of 84 feet. The big question, particularly in the Wii Tennis clubhouse, is: how high can a person’s score go in a particular sport? Anything over 2000 displays off the chart:

After poking around for a few minutes, I discovered the Wii High Scores pool on Flickr, in which were the 2310 in tennis above, several 300 games in bowling, an 8-under in golf, and 153.1 feet in “Hitting the Green”. Wii boxers in this thread claim a top score of 3124, after which it seems nearly impossible to score even a single point. Here’s a screenshot of a 3120-level boxer:

Does anyone have any Wii Sports high scores to share? Anyone over 2300 in tennis? Photo evidence is preferred.

Reader comments

Rufus CartwrightMar 15, 2007 at 12:20PM

I have a 279 in Wii Bowling, which is 11 strikes with a 9 / thrown somewhere in the middle. I've had to give up Wii Bowling though, because the more I practice the slightly odd wrist action required, the more my real life bowling action suffers.

JeffMar 15, 2007 at 12:32PM

I am surprised that no one seems to get higher than 2300 in tennis.

I got up to 1950 pretty quickly and I have barely begun to master the different swings. Perhaps there's a vast difference between 1950 and 2300.

Has anyone else noticed that the 1900/2000 skill opponents seem to get better as the match progresses? I seem to easily win the first 4 points in each match (game-love), but rarely win the match 3 games to 0.

pauldwaiteMar 15, 2007 at 12:32PM

Is 300 a perfect score in bowling? In the Wii interviews on the Nintendo web site, one of the developers said that no-one at Nintendo had bowled a perfect score:

http://wii.nintendo.com/iwata_asks_vol4_p4.jsp

NickMar 15, 2007 at 12:38PM

I don't have any photo evidence, but a friend of mine has bowled a 300. The key is to throw the ball in a high arc with not too much spin - this seems to produce the most consistent results.

I refuse to use this method because in real life, the bowling alley owner would come out and yell at you. I like lining up all the way to the side and putting wicked spin the the ball. It's a lot easier to mess up, but it looks way cooler.

RufusMar 15, 2007 at 12:54PM

Nick, I don't use that technique at all. I release the ball as as close to the foul line as possible, in order to produce very consistent swing across the lane. I find if I toss it high in the air, I can't judge the timing as easily.

robMar 15, 2007 at 1:16PM

My Wii Tennis graph 'flatlines' at 2000 and doesn't go off the chart as you rise above it. Maybe we have a different code version here.

Augie De Blieck Jr.Mar 15, 2007 at 1:52PM

I've been stuck at 1990-2000 in Tennis forever. I can't break too far over 2000 without the computer coming back at me and destroying me in the next round. I didn't think it was all that likely to get too much higher. Plus, any win only adds 10 points to my score, while a loss drops it 20. (Those numbers are not exact, just a relative thing.)

It's not frustrating, though, as the game is still a lot of fun.

Anonymous CowardMar 15, 2007 at 2:04PM

Not mine but Eric Sink shot a -12 at golf. He also tells how he did it.

JamieMar 15, 2007 at 2:50PM

A perfect score in the Wii bowling "Power Throws" training game is 890, which has been achieved:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/07/wii-bowling-power-throws-whither-the-perfect-890/

Pretty impressive stuff, considering the progressively increasing number of pins.

JeremyMar 15, 2007 at 3:28PM

I got a question...how do you register points in Wii Tennis / Baseball / Boxing. I'll play and play and I get no parlay.

What's the obvious answer?

jkottkeMar 15, 2007 at 3:38PM

You have to play against the computer to score points. Playing against human opponents = zero points.

NickMar 15, 2007 at 4:16PM

Different strokes for different folks, Rufus. Pun intended.

Remember this entry: http://www.kottke.org/07/02/putting-the-game-back-in-video-game)? I think I do the best when I treat Wii bowling like it's the real thing, rather than consciously adjusting the twist in my wrist.

Here's how it goes down: 1) Stare really hard at where you want the ball to end up without zooming in. 2) Bowl.

This also seems to work with the timed swings baseball minigame.

Stay Connected