Deca Sports Wii Video Game Preview
Play Volleyball, Basketball, Soccer, Kart Racing, Archery and More
This May, Hudson will be releasing its answer to Nintendo's Wii Sports: Deca Sports, a sports compilation featuring ten games taking advantage of the Wii remote.
Nintendo's Wii Sports, which comes bundled with the Wii console, remains one of gamers' favorite and most played games for the Wii. This May, however, Hudson is finally challenging Nintendo's dominance on the sports genre with its own sports compilation, Deca Sports.
Ten Games in One
Nintendo's Wii Sports comes with five simplistic sports games: Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing. Thus, in Deca Sports, Hudson has chosen to include ten games not found in Wii Sports: Beach Volleyball, Snowboard Cross, Badminton, Basketball, Curling, Figure Skating, Archery, Supercross, Soccer and Kart Racing.
A Wii-Centric Sports Experience
Each of the included sports games will take advantage of the Wii remote to give gamers a "true" Wii experience. Some of the games work very similarly to games found in Wii Sports: for instance, Badminton, like Tennis, will require gamers to flick their wrists in the direction they want to hit the ball, while Curling, similar to Bowling, requires gamers to shove a rock to send it across the ice.
Other games work similarly to Wii games that have come before it. For instance, Kart Racing, similar to Excitetruck or Mario Kart, has gamers holding their Wii remote sideways and turning it left or right in order to steer. Soccer, like Mario Strikers, requires gamers to break out the Nunchuck and use its analog stick to run down the field while passing or shooting with buttons on the Wii remote.
Still other games have no precedent on the Wii thus far, though the control schemes for these games also seem to be intuitive. In volleyball, gamers simply swing the Wii remote in a certain direction to spike the ball. In archery, gamers aim at a target in the distance by pointing at the screen, and pull back the arrow and shoot by using the "B" button.
Deca Challenges and Co-op Play
Other than the normal game modes, Deca Sports will also contain special modes such as Deca Challenge. The Challenge mode shakes things up a bit by creating special tasks in each of the ten sports that gamers must complete. For instance, in Badminton, players must hit targets on the other side of the net. In Curling, meanwhile, gamers need to land the rock at certain points on the ice.
The game also features co-op and multiplayer modes for up to four players. Co-op modes, of course, will divide players up into teams, though only for certain, as of yet unannounced sports. The multiplayer mode, on the other hand, supports every event, and gamers simply take turns or go head-to-head with other players to see who is the best!
Outlook
If the sports in Deca Sports sound pretty simplistic -- well, that's the point. Like Wii Sports, Deca Sports is designed for pick-up-and-play gaming, so that new gamers who haven't played Deca Sports before can easily join in and play against their friends without having to learn complicated controls or rules. Of course, Deca Sports will also feature an attractive price tag that's suitable for the nature of the game - $30, rather than the standard $50.
If Deca Sports manages to be anywhere near as fun as Wii Sports, this game should be quite a blast. Only time will tell, though, so look out for reviews once the game releases on May 13th, 2008.
Those interested in a more involved sports experience may also be interested in Namco's upcoming We Ski for Wii.
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