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IGN Review of Deca Sports 2
I did not like the original Deca Sports. It was a rushed collection of ten sports-focused mini games that only had maybe one or two games that were really worth the effort of booting up the disc. The consumers have spoken, however, and the sales of Deca Sports was incentive enough for Hudson to give the game a second go: Deca Sports is, once again, an assortment of seemingly random mini games that's meant to attract the Wii Sports crowd. The second time is slightly better than the first, but the good vs. bad is still weighed heavily on the latter with very few likeable sports beyond one or two.
Let me start this review by talking about my favorite additions. In the original game I found myself heading straight to curling and archery. In Deca Sports 2's case, I'm a fan of Petanque and Road Racing. Petanque isn't much more than horseshoes using heavy balls instead of metal letter Us, but it's got a fun competitive nature provided you can deal with the janky Wii motion controls – it tries so hard to give players good command over light and heavy tosses, but for the life of me I was never able to be consistent in the "medium" throws; light and heavy lobs were a lot easier than finding the happy medium. The second game, Road Racing, might seem surprising since the Kart Racing from the original Deca Sports was so poorly received. But the racing in Deca Sports is tighter, faster, and more competitive – it couldn't stand on its own, naturally, but it's a nice addition to a multipack variety.
Hockey and Dodgeball aren't terrible, either, but they're incredibly basic arcade-like arena games that are a little too simple for their own good. Hockey is like a slow-paced Wayne Gretzky 64 (remember that one?) with scoring opportunities of a basketball game, and Dodgeball becomes a silly game of catch when you realize you can simply hit two buttons to prevent getting hit from a dead-on throw.
Mogul Skiing and Speed Skating could be considered the same game considering how similar the games play and control….even though they're completely different sports concepts. Kendo is a poor addition considering it's coming out right after Wii Sports Resort and its awesome Sword Play, and the only good that comes out of Hudson's version is that it shows just how important Wii Motion Plus will be for anyone that wants weapon duels.
It's hard to play Deca Sports 2's tennis simply because it's difficult to out-do what Nintendo has already done with Wii Sports, and in comparison the Hudson version comes off a little stiff and laggy even though it has nearly identical control. You do, however, have the option to move close to the net or back to the line using the D-pad, but that doesn't make Deca Sports 2's tennis as good as Nintendo's. Darts could have been decent, but the control scheme breaks the game: you aim with the pointer then "thrust" the Wii remote to throw, which will jolt your pointer and completely shift the aim. I don't care how steady your hand is, it's nearly impossible to lock down your target with this control scheme.
And then you've got Syncronized Swimming, which I cannot for the life of me believe that Hudson put it in here as a serious addition. It's a stupid premise to begin with, and it's almost embarrassing watching the action unfold on your screen as you shake the Wii remote at specific points in the public domain music.
Deca Sports 2 does support internet play, but only in three sports: Tennis, Hockey and Dodgeball. Shame, too, since Petanque is ripe for the online competition. This game falls into the familiar problem of random match-ups: you choose the game before you search for a pairing, which limits who you can actually connect to; why is it so hard to understand that maybe I want to find a person before I jump into a game of Tennis, Hockey or Dodgeball – by forcing me to choose one of the sports beforehand, I may be searching at the same time as someone searching another sport…and we'd never hook up.
©2009-10-23, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Let me start this review by talking about my favorite additions. In the original game I found myself heading straight to curling and archery. In Deca Sports 2's case, I'm a fan of Petanque and Road Racing. Petanque isn't much more than horseshoes using heavy balls instead of metal letter Us, but it's got a fun competitive nature provided you can deal with the janky Wii motion controls – it tries so hard to give players good command over light and heavy tosses, but for the life of me I was never able to be consistent in the "medium" throws; light and heavy lobs were a lot easier than finding the happy medium. The second game, Road Racing, might seem surprising since the Kart Racing from the original Deca Sports was so poorly received. But the racing in Deca Sports is tighter, faster, and more competitive – it couldn't stand on its own, naturally, but it's a nice addition to a multipack variety.
Hockey and Dodgeball aren't terrible, either, but they're incredibly basic arcade-like arena games that are a little too simple for their own good. Hockey is like a slow-paced Wayne Gretzky 64 (remember that one?) with scoring opportunities of a basketball game, and Dodgeball becomes a silly game of catch when you realize you can simply hit two buttons to prevent getting hit from a dead-on throw.
Mogul Skiing and Speed Skating could be considered the same game considering how similar the games play and control….even though they're completely different sports concepts. Kendo is a poor addition considering it's coming out right after Wii Sports Resort and its awesome Sword Play, and the only good that comes out of Hudson's version is that it shows just how important Wii Motion Plus will be for anyone that wants weapon duels.
It's hard to play Deca Sports 2's tennis simply because it's difficult to out-do what Nintendo has already done with Wii Sports, and in comparison the Hudson version comes off a little stiff and laggy even though it has nearly identical control. You do, however, have the option to move close to the net or back to the line using the D-pad, but that doesn't make Deca Sports 2's tennis as good as Nintendo's. Darts could have been decent, but the control scheme breaks the game: you aim with the pointer then "thrust" the Wii remote to throw, which will jolt your pointer and completely shift the aim. I don't care how steady your hand is, it's nearly impossible to lock down your target with this control scheme.
And then you've got Syncronized Swimming, which I cannot for the life of me believe that Hudson put it in here as a serious addition. It's a stupid premise to begin with, and it's almost embarrassing watching the action unfold on your screen as you shake the Wii remote at specific points in the public domain music.
Deca Sports 2 does support internet play, but only in three sports: Tennis, Hockey and Dodgeball. Shame, too, since Petanque is ripe for the online competition. This game falls into the familiar problem of random match-ups: you choose the game before you search for a pairing, which limits who you can actually connect to; why is it so hard to understand that maybe I want to find a person before I jump into a game of Tennis, Hockey or Dodgeball – by forcing me to choose one of the sports beforehand, I may be searching at the same time as someone searching another sport…and we'd never hook up.
©2009-10-23, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved