TGS '07: Deca Sporta Hands-On

TOKYO--Ask a handful of Wii owners what their favorite game for the system is and one game inevitably keeps popping up: Wii Sports. The game's simple controls and straightforward nature has made the pack-in game a mainstay for Wii owners, even months after the introduction of the console. Now, game company Hudson Soft is looking to tap into the Wii Sports fan base with a collection of gesture-based sports games all its own: Deca Sporta. Yesterday, on the floor of the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, we had a chance to try out three of the 10 sports that will be in the final game.

The three playable sports were badminton, archery, and snowboard racing, and all three used very simple controls based entirely on the Wii Remote. For badminton, you simply swung the controller when the shuttle gets near you to keep the rally going. How hard you swing seems to make a difference to how quickly, and in what direction, the shuttle moves. As in Wii Sports Tennis, however, the movement of your players is entirely controlled automatically.

Snowboard racing pits you against a number of other snowboarders (controlled either by other players or the CPU). The controls are straightforward--to accelerate you point the tip of the Wii Remote down, to brake you pull back, and to turn you twist the Wii Remote either left or right. While your snowboarders do take jumps, there's no way to do SSX-style tricks; instead, the challenge of this mode is modulating your speed for the sometimes tricky turns.

Archery is perhaps our favorite of the three sports available in the TGS build of Deca Sporta, if only because, by comparison to the other two events, it takes some skill to be successful. To fire an arrow, you first press and hold the B button and then hold the Wii Remote forward to aim. A target appears onscreen that you can guide with the Wii Remote and, once you've lined up your shot, you release the B button to let the arrow fly. Your score depends on your accuracy on the target. Wind speed and direction does play a part in your shot, so you'll want to check wind conditions in the lower left-hand portion of the screen before you let fly. In the archery competition, you shoot three arrows from 30 meters and another three from 50 meters. The player with the highest cumulative score is the winner.

Other games that will be part of Deca Sporta will include curling, beach volleyball, soccer, supercross, figure skating, basketball, and kart racing. Without trying the other games, we can't say whether Deca Sporta will be a permanent replacement for Wii Sports or a worthy competitor to the upcoming Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, but we definitely see some potential.