Jun 28 2008
Big Beach Sports Review
Big Beach Sports is an interesting beach multiplayer game. It features six different sports played in a beach environment. The graphics are not all that great, but the gameplay is at least decent and to me that is more important than amazing graphics. The game does a pretty good job of making use of the Wii remote’s motion sensors allowing you to feel kind of like you are actually playing the games.
Volleyball - You can play quickplay best of 1, 3 or 5 or do a tournament. Controls are Press A and swing your arm with Wii remote forward over your head like doing a real overhead serve, move Wii remote up to do a bump, and swing arm like serving to do a spike. Overall this is pretty straighforward like real volleyball. It is a little frustrating, though, with getting your timing to hit the ball right and I frequently ended up with my players getting hit in the head, but with some practice the timing becomes natural. Against the computer it gets a little dull, but if you got some friends to play with I imagine this could be a fun party game.
Bocce - This game can be done as quickplay, tournament, or party play. Throw order can be done either traditionally (player farthest from jack goes next) or simple (players go in order). Use the arrow keys to aim your shot and to position your player. Press A to toggle between the controls. To throw the ball you do an underarm swing similar to bowling. Overall this is easy to do control wise, although it does take some skill to consistently end up with the one whose ball is closest to the jack.
Football - This is another quickplay or tournament mode game. To start you press A to snap the ball. To throw the ball you swing your arm over your head and down similar to throwing a real football. To knock down a pass you move the Wii remote up. You can intercept the pass if you hold B and do the same movement. To tackle you shake the Wii remote. This game is one of the easiest to play, but it is not all that realistic feeling to play.
Soccer - This can be done as quickplay or tournament. The main controls in this game are to press A to pass to the nearest teammate and press B to pass to the farthest teammate. To shoot a goal you swing the Wii remote side to side. When on defense you can switch the player you are controlling by pressing A. To have your player stay on the ball you hold B and you swing the Wii remote side to side to do a slide tackle. This can be fun if you are into soccer games, but as for realistic feeling this is definitely the worst because you are using your hand to play and you are never the goalie.
Disc Golf - This one has quickplay, tournament, and Party Play modes. In the game you try to get your metal disc/frisbee to the metal basket in as few throws as you can. You aim your throw using the arrow buttons. To throw you position your body with your right shoulder (left if you are set up as lefty) towards the screen and move your arm across your body while holding A from your farthest shoulder to in front of you. Basically you do the motion of throwing a frisbee.
Cricket - This one has quickplay and tournament modes. Personally I did not play enough to understand the game of cricket, but I did at least figure out the controls. When batting you swing like in baseball accept you hold the bat down instead of up. For bowling (i.e. pitching) you press the A button with the Wii remote at your side and then you swing your arm around and down like a windmill to throw the ball. Kind of interesting, but a little confusing for someone who does not know the game like me.
Overall this game is a worthwhile game to play. I like the realistic movements in most of the games. It is also a nice change of pace from playing the Wii Sports games and is not too hard to figure out. It does get kind of boring playing by yourself against the computer players, but if you can get some friends or family to play with you it could be a lot of fun. Lastly, I really love that you can customize your character’s face using the Nintendo DS download play mode and drawing with your stylus on the DS. Not as cool as if you could just use your already created Mii character, but a good alternative.
