E3 Impressions: Hudson Entertainment

This appointment was by far the shortest of all that I had at E3 this year.  Hudson shared a booth with Konami which owns the company and had on display two titles, a Wii and a DS game. Miami Law seems to be interesting while Deca Sports 2 tries to convince folks that Deca Sports needed a sequel.

Miami Law

Action meets text adventure is the best way I can describe Miami Law.  You are helping two cops on the streets of Miami, Law Martin and Sara Starling.  Law is the rough edged cop that plays it fast and loose while Sara is a brainy by the book officer.

I got to play a mini game for both characters and each has a different style.  Law had more action based games, such as steering a car so that Sara could shoot the enemies.  You’re also having to dodge gunfire while doing this.  It sounds hectic, but in reality it’s pretty easy.  When I was playing a mini game for Sara, I thought it more up my alley.  The goal was to compare strands of molecules and to match them to the lineup.  You’re able to twist the view of the one you’re trying to match up, but the others in the line up stay flat.  This makes it somewhat challenging if you’re like me and have a difficult time in mapping things out in 3-D in your head.  I was able to spot the correct  one in the end however and I’m sure others will too.

The replay value I’m told is there with a slightly different story unfolding depending on which of the two characters you pick.  To further replay, there are also unlockables.  Two such I was told about were Sudoku and Texas Hold ’Em.

I did enjoy this game even with the brief exposure I had with it.  The Japanese development team was flown to Miami to experience what the city had to offer first hand.  I’m sure they’d put a trip like that to good use and make the game feel as authentic as possible.  The Law hits on June 9th.

Deca Sports 2

Even though the original Deca Sports scored poorly with many outlets, including NintendoGal.com, it didn’t stop it from selling.  It sold well enough to warrant a second game, Deca Sports 2.  As a surprising note, the game does not support Wii Motion Plus or the Wii Balance Board as many sequels have been doing lately.  If you enjoyed the first, this seems to build on what was offered there.

I only was able to play a few games in the Deca Sports 2 collection of ten games.  Those games include: Ice Hockey, Dodge Ball, Tennis, Darts, Speed Skating, Mogul Skiing, Petanque, Kendo, Motorcycle Road Racing, and Synchronized Swimming
.  Of those I sampled Tennis, Kendo, and Synchronized Swimming.  The Tennis game plays similar to the version in Wii Sports.  When it came to the Kendo, movement is performed with the Nunchuk while swinging at your opponent is done with motions using the Wii Remote.  This seems to work well, but I was having a difficult time figuring out who got the point after each round.  As it turned out I was kicking the demonstrator’s ass unintentionally. 

The last game I tried was Synchronized Swimming which seemed somewhat out of place in comparison with the rest of the games.  Your goal here is more rhythm than anything else and feels vaguely like Elite Beat Agents.  For much of the game you’ll have circles which will sometimes have arrows on them.  As the circles contract, with the music, you’ll need to swing the remote in the direction it asks in beat.  Other required movements are swirling the Wii Remote, but I wasn’t able to perform this while there due to not understanding what it was I was supposed to be doing.

As an overall package, I’d say Deca Sports 2 seems more of a value than the first one.  With the implementation of Wi-Fi Connection support to play games online with your friends, this family-friendly title, regardless of what the critics will say looks to be in a position to move units.