Cortjezter's Deca Sports impressions!

This was supposed to be posted as an ‘End of day’ thought this morning, but my internet has been going down like clockwork right around my last update schedule. Regardless of those issues (soon to be fixed I was assured), here is Cortjezter’s hands-on impressions from Deca Sports. A huge thanks to Cort for taking time to put this together.

Hey everyone, cortjezter here. After that long-winded and overly serious editorial this past weekend, I have something much more interesting and upbeat to share with you all. Hudson Entertainment has announced the game Deca Sports and lifted the embargo for discussion, so I can finally share my full impressions! First things first, the press release if you missed it…

So how did I already get my delicate, artist fingers all over it already? Thanks to some impressive legwork by Hudson and their PR friends, I was able to meet with them a month ago while they were visiting this frozen wasteland of Minneapolis, MN. In four hour’s time of playing things (other game impressions to come soon), a good hour and a half was spent perusing each of Deca Sports’ offerings, making it the longest sports-playing session I’ve had since grade school kickball.

So where to begin? Ten sports; some common here in the States, some more common elsewhere, some not necessarily common anywhere, and that’s really one of the things I loved most about seeing this game and it’s selection of sports. Unlike the defacto title packaged with so many Wii units which mainly featured popular, standard athletics, Deca Sports brings that kind of magic that you can sometimes only get from the B-side of a music single, or even songs on an album that never make it to MTV, yet can be as good or better than the ones that do. If Wii Sports was a maxi-single, Deca Sports is a full album with twice the number of games.

Other parallels to Wii Sports can be drawn, especially when you look at the visual style: it’s very reminiscent of the Nintendo title, from the simple environments to the character models themselves. The game doesn’t appear to have any integration with the Miis, and no word yet as to how customisable the in-game characters are, but for what it’s worth, Deca Sports does seem to have at least a marginally higher level of graphical detail.

As for general gameplay, most of what you’d expect from what makes Wii Sports successful is here too: pick up and play mechanics needing little or no explanation. The on screen cues help fill in the gaps and honestly, you’ll only need the help for the sports you already have no clue about. One thing some of you will be glad to hear is that the controls rarely if ever felt wonky or “off” like some of us felt about Boxing or Golf, even in its unfinished state. Obviously a few minor tweaks here and there to things like timing will help to iron those last few quirks out and really let the games shine. Now onto some brief impressions of the specific games…click the thumbnail images to enlarge screenshots.

Curling. This was the first out of the ten that we played. It’s really an oddball kind of sport and I am thrilled we get a chance at it here, because honestly most people would never do it otherwise. The game is essentially shuffleboard on ice, and the skill comes in not just how hard you shove the rock down the board, but also how the brooms are used to guide it to the desired zone on the target. The mechanics are pretty simple, using actions somewhat similar to Bowling for the launch, though where the simplicity of the gestures ends, the strategy of the game rules adds a full layer of depth for those who choose to explore it. Expect to play a few games before getting the hang of how to win. A good choice for this pack, and definitely one of the standouts.

Beach Volleyball. In some ways, this one feels like Tennis, but only in the sense you’re on a court (no relation) with a net, and up to 4 players sending the ball back and forth. Where Tennis basically had simple serve, forward- and back-hand hits mapped to the wiimote, Volleyball brings the same intuitive gestures from the real-life counterpart to the video version, allowing you to bump, set, serve and spike the ball just as you’d expect. One mechanic of note is the timing of hits can affect certain ‘power moves’ such as spiking, meaning there’s at least some skill required before you can ruthlessly pwn your little brother with spike after spike, but once you can, it’s pretty satisfying.

Snowboard Cross. I played SSX Blur, and it was a decent game, but it had a learning curve and some wild manoeuvres before you could really get anywhere. Not so with this snowboarder. Simple tilting of the wiimote will get you to the finish line with some fun tricks, and you won’t be looking like a raver with worn out glowsticks drawing hearts and the like in the air just to get the most out of the courses.

Badminton. Ok, I’ll say it: Badminton is one of my favourite sports ever, so I’ve a natural predisposition to enjoy this game, and luckily it delivers. Like Tennis, the characters automatically chase after the birdie (shuttlecock for those mature enough to say it straight-faced), and you have similar gestures for hitting it as you would a ball. Where Tennis had it’s secret power serve, Badminton gives you a chance with each swing to really smash it across the net, and it’s all based on timing. The birdie glows for a super brief moment before it’s hit, marking the precise moment to gain the smash. The flash can vary depending on speed, etc., so it really will just take time to master this mechanic and get a feel for it. My pick of the litter from this pack.

Soccer. We played a full game of soccer (abbreviated periods of course), and while I don’t remember who won, it was a lot of fun nevertheless. You can do many basics, such as passing and stealing, but some advanced techniques are thrown in too. If you time it right, a quick pass between players trying to score near the goal can result in a faster, more powerful kick or headbutt into the net. The running feels just a little slow compared to how fast the ball can get around the walled-in course, and the opponent AI needed tweaking (sometimes too skilled, other times too easy), but overall, the game plays well and we had some loud moments of fun.

Archery. A pleasant addition to the collection; one that is both accessible yet challenging. The actual motions are a little fuzzy in my memory, but the general premise is that you aim at targets of varying distances which increase during the game, making the effects of wind and gravity so much more pronounced. Add that to the fact the targets and thus bullseye get smaller on screen as you proceed and shoot from further away. If I remember correctly, you ‘pull back’ with the B trigger and aim with the IR pointer, releasing the trigger to let the arrow fly. You need to do all the aiming, consider the wind and distance, plus hold your arm statuelike all within a time limit. If you exceed the time limit without shooting the arrow–even if you have it pulled back and aimed–instead of it firing off however you are, you forfeit the turn and earn zero points, effectively a ‘miss’. I like the idea and overall execution of the game, the only trouble might be with those on small televisions, since the bullseye is already a small target, but to hold perfectly still while also aiming and moving fingers on the wiimote to release an arrow amplifies this fact, making the centre of a target increasingly difficult to hit, especially as the distances increase and they get even smaller. Perhaps a zoom feature like Bowling let you do on the lanes would help with that, or perhaps it would defeat the purpose and realism of actually aiming an arrow down a field.

Figure Skating. You might wonder how on earth this works, especially since the screenshot doesn’t give much indication. It plays a little like a freeform rhythm game, albeit without the spasmodic techno music and insane gyrations; figure skating here is much more relaxed, and one of the guys partially confessed to it being one of his favourites in the pack. How it works is two-fold. You have a set program length, indicated by the song playing using an ipod-like progress bar at the top of the screen, and using the nunchuk, you control the skater. The trick is to not go too fast or too slow according to the music, but also to follow a line of dots indicating your actual dance steps, etc. (think something like Pac-Man following power pellets). It does most of the various moves automatically, but things like jumps or spiral sequences can be guided when timed right on the larger “pellets”. The more dots you glide through–because you can with the nunchuk miss or skip them depending on your skill or timing, the more steps you perform and the better your score; same with landing jumps. At the end of the routine, you have one last chance to execute some wild jump and spins to rack up a few extra points. It takes a couple tries before the skating feels natural (similar to the curve in Super Mario Galaxy to control Mario upside down), but then things are literally smooth sailing. The only trouble I had was landing the jump timing, and that seemed mostly an issue with the ‘larger dots’ being literally just larger versions of the smaller ones, except to get the jump right, you flick the wiimote when the skater crosses the very centre of the dot, not just when you get inside it.. which seemed unintuitive to me. I suggest using something more like a regular dot with an extra ring around it like a target so you’d know it’s for jumps, and still be able to hit the sweet spot. With a little polish, this could really be a sleeper game in the collection for guys and gals alike.

Kart Racing & Supercross. Ok, before you ask, these aren’t Excitebike and Mario Kart. Disclaiming that these were both still pretty early, I think each has promise. I had plenty of trouble getting the dirt bikes to control either on the track or in the air, which hopefully gets ironed out. The karts controlled really well; much like a real kart where brakes aren’t really so effective…but that’s part of the fun: using inertia to control your turns. While there are no pesky flying blue shells or track editors to put neck-breaking jumps together like some of the more famous titles, with time and polish, they will be nice complements to the rest of the collection.

Overall, like I said, it’s a pretty solid group of games, with something for everyone, and nearly everyone can enjoy them all on some level. I have to commend the effort of filling the niche and gap Nintendo has created by ignoring a Wii Sports 2, especially by injecting some less mainstream games like Curling. I hope the game finds enough success that it can lead to additional collections with even more obscure sports like Sumo Wrestling…or Boomerang contests. Thanks to Hudson for sharing their time and efforts with me, so I could bring it to you. Hope you’re looking forward to Deca Sports as much as I am! –cortjezter