Sports Champions Hands-On

A sports compilation game is maybe not the most original idea, but in a way it may be the bread and butter of motion control games. Sports Champions is Sony’s first-party swing into the mix and will hopefully capture the casual audience, along with sports fans, much like the competing Wii Sports.

Our hands-on demonstration allowed us to try out the table tennis--or Ping-Pong, if you will--game. By default we were given a right-handed character to play as. Quickly swinging the motion controller served the ball to our computer-controlled opponent. As our opponent deflected the ball back to us, we bolted to the right and swung with minimal effort. As expected, the ball did not make it far past our side of the net with such little force. As the competition sent the ball back our way, we retaliated with a more forceful counter, plowing the ball almost over the table. Luckily, the ball did still hit the edge, preventing us from taking a penalty. For our demo, we played a match of best out of three that we are sad to report concluded in the computer’s victory.

None of the other game types were available in the demo. However, the full game will include standard fare such as archery and volleyball. Unexpected inclusions will be bocce, disc golf, and even gladiator fighting.

We’ll be sure to play those as well when Sports Champions comes out September 19, bundled free with the PlayStation Move.