Games for Lunch: Deca Sports

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0:18 I get too fancy trying to curve a shot in and around from the outside and miss the ricochet I was going for. They always seem to curve too much or too little. This is gonna take some getting used to.

0:21 I finally I do something right, knocking one stone into another like a fancy pool shot. They're only sitting one now.

0:22 Argh! I waste my hammer by knocking into one of my stones. I "LOSE," as the game tells me in big letters.

0:23 Much as I'd like to do nothing but curling, it doesn't seem very fair to the rest of the sports. Badminton, for instance! I choose Large Tony for this one.

0:27 Controls seem similar to Wii Tennis, with automatic player movement and Wii remote-swinging when the shuttlecock gets near you. Power and angle are determined by the power and angle of the swing, apparently. In practice, though, it's hard to place shots because of the odd camera angle and unresponsive timing. I lose 5-2. Maybe I just need more practice, but I doubt it.

0:28 Kart racing doesn't seem to fit with the other Olympic-style sports here, but who am I to complain, as long as it's good?

0:30 Good it is not. The kart turns more like a hovercraft than a vehicle with four wheels -- very floaty, to the point of being hard to play. For a genre this well-worn, they managed to screw it up pretty horribly. Next!

0:32 Large Tony's off to the beginner's Snowboarding course. It reminds me of Super Monkey Ball snowboarding, where the remote mimics the board -- lean forward to go faster, twist to turn. The course is over before I know it, though. I kept falling for no apparent reason, and I wasn't really sure what to do on the jumps. Seems a little like it was done on the cheap.

0:33 Archery time! I was pretty good at this at summer camp, and the controls seem pretty analogous to the real thing -- hold B, pull back the remote, aim, and let go of B to let it fly!

0:34 My first shot's a bullseye! Ten points! I like the way the aiming reticle and target are tiny on-screen -- it's like the actual view your archer would have from 30 meters away. I also like the wind adjustments necessary to hit the center.

0:37 I win 55-48 after six arrows, including three shot from 50 meters. The 50M round. "WIN" happy music. Nice, but a little easy.

0:38 Large Tony's off to Supercross! The controls seem like those in Excite Truck, except with bikes. So, Excite Bike, I guess.

0:39 Motocross suffers from the same unresponsive, loose controls as the kart racing. What's more, the people on the bikes seem more like mannequins than actual, living bikers. Large Tony's moving on to Beach Volleyball.

0:41 The game controls like Wii Sports Tennis again, with automatic player movement and remote-waving to simulate hitting.

0:42 My first serve is an ace, right to the corner. I wish I knew how I did that. My second serve goes out. I wish I knew how I did that, too.

0:43 The ball movement has a nice, believable blur to it. I don't like how I can only control one player, though.