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.