Deca Sports Wii Review

Mini-game compilations have always been hit or miss with gamers. Even the most popular, the Mario Party series has been a love it or hate it thing for gamers. Still, with the Wii’s incredible mainstream success, mini-game compilations seem to be a growing genre with increasing amounts of titles on the store shelves. Combining ten sporting events into one game, Deca Sports for the Nintendo Wii allows players to compete in beach volleyball, snowboard cross, badminton, basketball, curling, figure skating, archery, supercross, soccer and kart racing. As with just about any mini-game compilation, there is a mix of good and bad in this set of games, but are there enough winners here to make for a worthwhile purchase? Let’s take a look at each of the events individually:

Volleyball
The most engaging of the demo sports, volleyball has you spiking and blocking on the beach. Unfortunately, you don’t move your characters, but you do set up volleys, spikes, and blocks by imitating the motions using the Wii remote. The fun comes from the relatively rapid pace of the matches and speed of play.

Badminton
Badminton is like a poor man’s tennis. I’m sorry to all the fans, but this definitely wasn’t nearly as fun as playing Nintendo’s Wii Sports tennis game. I’d find myself in absurdly long rallies, eventually getting bored since I simply didn’t have enough control over the direction and strength of the shots. The matches, at least on the default difficulty, were too slow.

Supercross
Careening recklessly through a dirt track using the Wii remote as a steering wheel in the same way it was used in Excite Truck, Deca Sport’s Supercross would’ve been a lot more fun if the controls were tighter. As it stands, I never felt like I was fully in control of the bike, which was frustrating as the AI opponents sped perfectly down the track and away from me.

Figure Skating
Ok, hear me out. Figure Skating on Deca Sports is fun. Really. First of all, it’s great to actually control your character, unlike volleyball and badminton. Second of all, timing your jumps, spins and twirls is actually the most fun I had with any of the demo sports. You’ll move your character through a predetermined track, though you can swerve away from it. At specific spots, you are prompted to perform a jump or twirl by waggling the Wii remote.

Soccer
Another hit for me, soccer featured a fun, stripped down version of the actual sport. You use the Wiimote and nunchuck to steer your player through the pitch. You use the wiimote for the actual shots or passes, depending on where your player is facing. Despite the slow pacing, I found soccer to be very enjoyable, especially with friends in the tournament mode. The ability to set up exciting headers and bicycle kicks made for big time goals. Unfortunately, you don’t play as the goalie, which is a weird omission that would have made for a fun challenge thanks to the Wii’s motion controls.

Archery
A simple but effective mini-game, this one has you aiming your wiimote at a distant target, fighting off the wind and your own shaky hand. As with most of the games on Deca Sports, you’ll want to play this one with a friend, where the competitive aspect makes the whole process seem more fun. It’s not the same playing against the game’s AI and playing with someone who is actively trying to distract you while you try to figure out the wind.

Basketball
While this game should theoretically be as fun as soccer, since it uses a very similar control scheme, it really isn’t that much fun for the most part. The biggest culprit here is the control scheme, that has you raising the wiimote to initiate the shot, then lowering it to get your shot off. Timing is crucial to whether you make or miss the shot, but I never found the right rhythm to consistently nail jumpers, much less three point shots, and instead settled for mostly layups and dunks. Unfortunately, the AI is very good at making three point shots, so that made the experience quite frustrating when I wasn’t playing against a human opponent. Still, defense was fun to play, and despite a slow pace, it was fun to run up and down the court and dunk the ball.

Kart Racing and Snowboarding
Like supercross, these games suffer from frustrating control issues where slight wiimote titles translate into big turns that drive you straight into walls while the AI flawlessly passes you by. The only way you can have any fun with these titles is to play against a human opponent who will

Curling
While I don’t understand much about the actual “sport” of curling, this was one of the most fun games in this compilation. Once you get a hang of the controls and how the physics work, you can have a good time against the AI or a human opponent trying to beat each other’s high scores.

Deca Sports is certainly an uneven package. While the ten sports had their share of good moments, they also featured spots of inconsistent controls, or in the case of badminton, bland gameplay. Still, if you have access to friends to play the game with, Deca Sports can definitely be fun. If you don’t, shave two points off the review score and give the game a rent. The difference is that important, especially to fully enjoy the game’s tournament modes or to actually have a balance in difficulty, since the AI can be soul-crushingly difficult in the worst controlling games (the racing ones) and seems too easy on the better ones (archery, soccer, figure skating, and curling). Overall, Deca Sports, like Wii Sports, is best enjoyed in the company of friends and is at its best when you’re goofing off trying to outdo them or distract them.