The Thrustmaster Sports Pack+ NW is a set of accessories to use with your Wii-mote and is compatible with the new Wii MotionPlus add-on. When accessories do their job right, they make gameplay more realistic and fun.

I found all of the pieces in the Sports Pack very easy to assemble. There are black silicone hand grips for the Wii-mote and Nunchuk to simulate Jet Ski hand grips. There’s a tennis racket head, ping pong (table tennis) head, golf club and sword. The Wii-mote slides into a solid grip, and then you screw on the paddle or racket heads or extension for golf club and sword (and then their head changes).

My main issue with the accessories is true of pretty much every accessory kit I’ve tried — they cover the end of the Wii-mote. You can’t point and select when the Wii-mote is in the attachment. Happily with the Thrustmaster Sports Pack+ NW, you can poke the end of the Wii-mote up to do your point and select and then quickly pop it back into the handle.

I tried the sword attachment first. I love the sword games on Wii Sports Resort. It took a little bit to get the hang of quickly poking the end of the Wii-mote out of the handle to start the game and then getting it back into place before the round actually starts. If you’re not quick, that can be an issue. While the sword is a lot of fun, I would hesitate to recommend it if you don’t have a lot of space to work with. I whacked the entertainment center several times, and I was being careful. I won’t allow my daughter to use it at all — I know she’d stab the TV. I would be very concerned about two players using these at the same time without someone getting hurt. Yes, there’s a soft end to the tip of the sword, but the rest is rigid plastic. A careful adult can use this one and have fun, but it’s not something I’d want kids to use — especially around each other.

The golf club attachment is just as long as the sword but not quite as hazardous in that you’re aiming the end at the ground — not at someone else. I don’t usually (ever) play the golf games, but I was able to use it on the original Wii Sports and play a short round of golf. I think it helped me orient the Wii-mote better since I had a visual for the head of the club. I am right-handed. I believe the club attachment would work fine for either right- or left-handed play, but stylistically, I’m not sure you can screw the head onto the attachment so that it’s oriented correctly for left-hand play. It’s a minor point and didn’t affect me, but it might be annoying to a left-handed player. I don’t believe it would have any impact on gameplay, but the look is probably going to be off.

I found the ping pong (table tennis) attachment to be a huge help. It was really a great visual for me and helped me hold the Wii-mote in the correct orientation. I used it with Wii Sports Resort along with the Wii MotionPlus add-on, and it worked quite well. I’ve played ping pong in the past, and the paddle is visually just perfect according to my memory.

The tennis racket head worked nicely with the original Wii Sports. In this case, I’m glad that it just had the head attachment and that the head is smaller than a regular tennis racket but larger than the table tennis paddle head. A full-size racket would have been a little nuts for indoor play. This size was just right. I only whacked the entertainment center a couple of times during my games. As with the table tennis head, it really helps with orienting the Wii-mote correctly for play.

I didn’t use the silicone handles with a jet ski game as they’re intended. I used them instead for the boxing game with Wii Sports. It’s kind of nice having that extra little grip on the Nunchuk. You can get sleeves anywhere for the Wii-mote, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them for the Nunchuk. Nice idea.

Overall, I had a great time playing my usual games with the Thrustmaster Sports Pack+ NW. The accessories are lightweight enough not to add any strain but sturdy enough that nothing fell apart on me while I was playing. My main caution is that you make sure you have enough play space if you’re going to use these accessories — especially the sword. I do not want to hear from you if you’ve just impaled your new high-def flat screen. You were warned.