 Preview By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher: | Hudson Entertainment | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Nunchuk | |
| Estimated Release: | 05/13/2008 |
With the 2008 Summer Olympics just around the corner, several publishers have sports-based games on the way in an attempt to cash in on the craze. Hudson has taken it one step further, as Deca Sports looks to also capitalize on the relative lack of simple sports titles (but not mini-game games) since the system launched with Wii Sports. But is it any good?
I was recently able to sample four of Deca Sports’ ten different games, including Figure Skating, Badminton, Beach Volleyball, and Supercross. Figure Skating is probably the simplest of these four sports. In Figure Skating, the player simply uses the Nunchuk’s analog stick to move along a dotted path, and flick the Wii Remote left or right to perform a trick when over a larger circle. The moves are pre-determined based on the sequence of moves in one of three difficulties, so each move is executed flawlessly as long as the Wii Remote is flicked at just the right time. There’s no doubles skating, but up to four players can play in alternating turns.
Badminton plays out a lot like Wii Sports’ tennis for 1-2 players, in that the game controls player movement while the player moves the Wii Remote to swing. Shot placement is determined by the direction the Wii Remote is moved, and power shots can be executed by swinging just as the shuttlecock glows.
Beach Volleyball plays similarly to Badminton, as once again the player does not control where their character moves. Swinging the Wii Remote up or down sets the ball or hits it over the net, while on defense swinging the Wii Remote up at just the right time can block a smash from the other team. Up to four people can play at a time, with two having the option of playing co-op or against each other with CPU-controlled teammates. Co-op is fairly challenging without a competent partner however, so players will have to work hard to win against the somewhat tough CPU A.I.
Finally, Supercross is the most challenging of the four games I was able to try. Like most racing games on the Wii, the player controls his or her bike with the Wii Remote held horizontally, using the 2 button as the gas and the 1 button as the brakes. Tilting the Wii Remote left or right turns the bike, while the bike’s pitch is controlled by tilting the remote backward or forward. The remote cannot be tilted more than 90 degrees when turning without throwing the controls off however, so it becomes a challenge keeping the bike in a good groove while minimizing the impact of landing from jumps. Shaking the remote while in the air also executes basic kick tricks, although I saw no real benefit from using them.
The other six games included in Deca Sports that I wasn’t able to try out are Archery, Basketball, Curling, Kart Racing, Snowboard Cross, and Soccer. It’s hard to draw conclusions on how these may play given my experience with the four playable games, as none of them seem to be much like the four playable games aside from Kart Racing (which should basically be Supercross without the pitch modifier). Given the fact that Hudson is going for a simple and approachable experience, one shouldn’t expect them to be full-blown simulations of the sports they’re based upon though, and all appear to be easily accessible.
One thing that surprised me about Deca Sports is that it doesn’t use Miis, even though the eight different teams are very Mii-like in appearance. The different teams have small, medium and large players to choose from, with fatigue reportedly becoming a factor when playing in the Deca League (which I couldn’t test since all 10 events weren’t available). I didn’t notice much of a difference in performance during individual competitions however, with large players skating just as nimbly as smaller ones in my tests, so it’s unclear at this time how exactly the different classifications impact individual performances.
Deca Sports is shaping up to be a suitable follow-up to Nintendo’s Wii Sports, with plenty of variety in its 10 different bite-sized takes on the world of sports and an appropriate $29.99 MSRP. Look for our full review soon.
Posted: 2008-05-09 13:14:02 PST