I recently got the demo for Deca Sports, a new Wii game from the guys at Hudson. The full title was actually released quietly last week, but feel free to read on for my first impressions anyway.
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the Wii brought up in conversation? For many casual gamers, the console is most associated with Wii Sports. At first glance, Deca Sports seems to be a direct rip-off of the Wii’s flagship title, and will undoubtedly be compared to it at every turn. However, Deca Sports offers quite a bit more depth, featuring twice the amount of sports and a few more game modes.
One of the biggest drawbacks, at least in my opinion, is that the game does not feature Miis, but rather bland imitations. Each character belongs to a different team and weight class, which is a nice stab at depth, but it didn’t really affect anything in the demo. There were only four sports available to me, so I’ll offer my thoughts on each one.
Badminton
I started up Badminton with the expectation of it being a Wii Tennis clone, and I wasn’t far off the mark. The game is played with just the wiimote, which you swing to hit the shuttlecock while your character moves on their own. If you have good timing, you can smash the shuttlecock over the net, but it took some practice to get that down. Overall, it’s an okay minigame, but there’s nothing new or revolutionary here.
Volleyball
Volleyball may as well have been called ’Badminton 2,’ as it was practically the same game. It plays exactly the same way, right down to the smash mechanic. I do appreciate the fact that you can jump in front of the net to block incoming balls, but the whole minigame just seemed redundant after Badminton.
Supercross
I was finally offered a change of pace in the dirtbike minigame. In this sport, you ride a dirtbike around a track while racing other players and pulling off tricks. The controls here actually worked remarkably well. You hold the wiimote sideways and tilt to steer, much like Excite Truck, or Mario Kart Wii without the Wii Wheel. However, I found that the steering in Deca Sports was much more responsive than in the former of those titles at least, and either on par with, or better than, Mario Kart.
Figure Skating
Ironically, the oddest sport of the four offered here was also my favorite. In figure skating you use the nunchuck to follow a set path on the ice, flipping the wiimote up and down at specific points to do tricks. There were three different songs offered in the demo, and all three were a blast to play. I hope that there are more songs in the final version though, as the three here went too fast and I didn’t have much of a desire to replay them.
Although I am curious to play the rest of the sports offered in the full package (archery, curling, and soccer just to name a few), I can’t really recommend the title based off the four games I did play. Aside from figure skating, there’s nothing here you can’t get elsewhere – and Wii Sports is free.
Look for a full review soon.
