When I got the Wii yesterday, the last thing I wanted to do was play Wii Sports. I wanted to dig into the interface, check out pictures, the online service, Excite Truck and of course, most importantly The Legend of Zelda.

But once I worked my way into all of that stuff, I figured I better check out Nintendo's freebie gamepack and I'm happy I did. I forgot how fun some of these games are.

Wii Sports includes five different games, some of which are addictive, others not so much.

Tennis: (1 to 4 players) Holding the remote in your hand like a tennis racket you swing away at tennis balls, while the game automatically moves your player around.

This was the first game I ever played on the Wii. It was at E3, up on that rotating stage with Joel, next to the Nintendo guy who loves the Leopard print. We kind of had fun, though Joel thwacked me once.

Playing it over a much longer period, I started to realize that the game can be more annoying than fun at times. Every time I tried to do a backhand my player would swing while I was still bringing the racket to my shoulder. And while you're supposed to be able to lob and deliver spin depending on timing, I just couldn't do it.

After a few games I began to realize that it was more annoying than fun.

Baseball: (1 to 2 players) Pitch and swing a bat with the remote.

I hadn't tried this one before. The game lets you take turns pitching and batting with the remote.

To bat you hold the remote like a bat and swing when the pitch comes in. It seemed like there was a slight delay issue, but nothing major, you just have to adjust to it. To pitch you swing the Wii remote down as if throwing a ball. The speed is determined by how quickly you swing the remote. You can also change pitches to inside, outside or down the middle and can even throw fastballs, curves, screwballs and splitters by holding a button in.

The pitching was much more intuitive than the batting, which really didn't seem to give you much control of what you did.

While I would have liked to see more batting finesse, the game was still quite enjoyable.

Bowling: (1-4 players) This was the most surprising of the games. I really didn't think a bowling game could be much fun, but I loved it.

To play you hold the remote as you would a TV remote and then hold down the B button trigger and raise the remote to your chest. Then you swing back and forward, releasing the trigger when you would release the ball in a real game of bowling. You can move left or right before starting your bowl and can also twist the remote during the swing to add ball spin.

I just loved this game. It was easy, the interface worked flawlessly and it was lots of fun to play in groups of four.

Golf: (1 to 4 players) Another gem in the Wii Sports pack, fun, complex and addictive.

To play you hold the remote as you would a golf club, with the buttons facing away from you, hold in the A button and then pull back and swing forward. A power gauge shows the power of your swing, if you overpower your swing you will hook or slice. You can also select clubs, direction to hit and read lay.

This is the perfect combination of play mechanics, complexity and fun for a quick Wii game. It was easy enough for my 5-year-old son to play (and hand me my ass in), but fun enough to make me want to keep playing as well.

Boxing: (1 to 2 players) Another game I never tried before yesterday.

To play you need to use the Wii remote and the nunchuk. You hold both in front of your chest. You punch by thrusting straight forward with either controller. Punching down aims a blow at the body, up aims at the head. You can block by holding the two controllers directly in front of you. You can also shift left and right by moving both controllers to either side, or just swaying your body either way.

This sounds like it would be a great fit for the Wii, but the mechanics just didn't work for me. I found myself confused and unable to do the things I wanted to in the game. The punch mechanics are awkward and not nearly responsive enough for such a fast-paced game.

This was my least favorite of the Wii games.

Overall, Wii Sports is a fun pack, but not nearly as fun as I thought it would be. The mixture of really fun and really flawed games makes for a mediocre experience. For free, though, it's definitely worth spending time with. Brian Crecente