Go Vacation is exactly as it advertises itself, minus a few necessary qualifiers. It certainly does contain over fifty types of activities, but of course, it fails to mention that all of them are nothing more than shallow timesinks. If this is exactly the sort of thing you're looking for, stop reading this review and go pick up a copy for the kids.
Go Vacation knows its demographic, and delivers a product that should satisfy it -- for a time, at least.
Go Vacation differs from Wii Sports Resort in one major way: the entire island is open for you to explore. This is both a blessing and a curse. Kawawii certainly looks like a fun place to explore, and there's an awful lot to do, whether you want to sightsee or dig into the mini-games. However, most locomotion in Go Vacation is terrible, due to finicky and unresponsive motion controls. The controls are only reliable when you're on foot, but your character is unfortunately slow as a snail. More on that later.
The majority of the experience will be spent completing the Stamp Dash. You'll have a guide the whole way, and she'll always have recommendations for you regarding your stamp list. She'll even mark your map for you and let you know how to get to each event. The Stamp Dash will take you through all four of Kawawii's resorts: the Marine Resort, the Mountain Resort, the Snow Resort, and the City Resort. Each of these resorts is jam packed with specific mini-games that fit the climate/terrain type. For example, the Marine Resort features surfing and jet ski racing, while the City Resort is more about bungee jumping and motorsports. This sense of cohesion helps in the long run, but can't save the mini-games themselves from being boring.
