Review: Sports Champions (Move)

TSA Staff 24 Comments

Emulating the success of Wii Sports was always going to be a challenge: many Wii owners consider the packed-in game as part and parcel of the Wii experience, some, I’d assume, will never feel the need to buy another game – Bowling, Boxing and Golf is the Wii. Naturally, this hasn’t stopped Sony trying to take a good hard look at what makes the jovial evergreen title such a hit and shoving every last inch of the Move’s technology onto a Blu-ray disk to pick up on what will probably amount to a huge chunk of day one sales. Sports Champions might not be as pick up and play as Wii Sports, but it’s much, much better.

For starters, each of the games included on the disk, from the wonderful Disc Golf to the less-than-wonderful Gladiator Duel boast detailed learning curves and complex mechanics but dress them up with physics and that all-important 1:1 mapping that makes getting better at the game a matter of skill, not luck, and ensures that all the number crunching is completely invisible. You’ll know what to do within a minute, but hours later you’ll start to get good at the game, and when you finally grab a hole in one with the throwing disk, bending it around a rock and over a tree, Sports Champions truly shines.

There’s variation in the games, of course, and whilst overall it’s clear Sony have tried to cover all bases with the control methods behind each title in the pack, there’s enough consistency between them to breed just the right amount of familiarity. Naturally, the visuals remain level throughout, the Home-esque avatars gruffly stereotypical rather than intelligent, but it’s in the controls, where, for example, squeezing the trigger ‘holds’ something, that Sony have really nailed the experience. Likewise, ambiguity is discarded with enough on-screen prompts to measure distance and power to back up any minor niggles that real life motions might introduce.

Table Tennis is a particular highlight. Gone is the waggle and in its place is precision, accuracy and a real sense of connection. Sure, the Move’s rumble isn’t going to make you ache, but the gentle pad when the ball strikes the bat is echoed on screen with visual cues for the ball’s landing place, its spin and its velocity. The bat, represented on screen attached to a transparent player to avoid any issues with the camera, reacts perfectly to your Move controller, and adding curve and precise force to any return of the ball is intuitive and confident. It’s, in a word, brilliant.

Bocce, too, soon becomes a game that best rewards patience and experience. Played out like a mix between crown green bowls and marbles, the slightly esoteric inclusion is a wonderful way to wile away an hour or so with a chilled out friend – at least until the courses become a little too ‘crazy golf’. Thankfully, those without gaming chums will take solice in a comprehensive single player championship for each game in the bundle, along with plenty of progressive Trophies and enough challenge as you move up the rungs to vastly improve your abilities. Multiplayer modes are mostly great, the turn based ones working out the best (with Table Tennis’ split screen affair a slight personal low point).

Sports Champions, then, is the perfect game to pick up alongside your Move when you grab one in a couple of weeks. It’s priced well (at around £25), offers lots of gameplay and a couple of real gems. Whilst I’m not a huge fan of the archery, I know some people are and it’s reasonable to assume that everyone will have their favourites. After all, I couldn’t stand Wii Sports Boxing but I know someone that played it ad infinitum.

Pros:

  • Disc Golf is fabulously accurate and endlessly addictive
  • It’s great value for money
  • Table tennis shows just what the Move can do

Cons:

  • Gladiator Duel is a tad dull and lifeless
  • Really requires two controllers to get the most of it
  • Table tennis doesn’t feel as fluid or fun with the split screen

Score: 8/10

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24 Comments

  1. I don’t suppose there’s any online multiplayer option?

    Would be great if it was.

    DR-DAVROS

    • As far as I know, it’s just online leaderboards.

  2. Disc Golf and Bocca are the two games that looks like fun.

    • +1

      Although the one I’m most looking forward to trying is Archery, but I’m just not expecting it to be that good.

  3. how do you use a shield on this or on the archery? for single player would it be best to have two move controllers or a move and sub, i really dont get some of the ways you can play this

    • 2 move controllers

    • Archery really requires 2 Moves. The Gladiator game can be played with one or two, no game yet REQUIRES the Nav.

      • thanks, will be getting a second move controller,

  4. Have on order, Two move controllers, a sub controller, Sports championship, Eyecam Clip ( to stop it moving around ) plus Resident Evil 5 Gold Move Edition for £110. I’m happy with that.

    • I have the same, but also the charger and RUSE.

  5. I might just get this… I heard DLC was planned aswell.
    Question, anyone know the trophy list? XD

  6. One thing that has impressed me this week is that all launch titles seem to be priced at a rather sexy £25 . At that price i wont need to ever go down the pre-owned route . I have spotted TW11 for £25 online this week so i think i will go down that road then pick up virtua tennis 4 on release (wont be £25 , i guess)

    • AFAIK all Move-only games are priced at £25 as they have a lower RRP than a traditional game (or a traditional game with move compatibility).

      • That certainly seems to be the trend for these early first-wave Sony titles, but I wouldn’t expect it to be true of everything with Move support. I can’t see Killzone 3 going for that, for example.

  7. I nearly ordered this but stopped myself on the assumption there will be a demo on the Store when Move launches. Didn’t expect it to have a single player campaign as such though so that could tempt me.

    Could you explain how you do Archery and Gladiator Duel with only 1 Move controller though? On the blog a while back said there were multiple control methods but you don’t mention them in your review – do you use a DS3 instead or something?

    Bit disappointed 2-player Table Tennis is bad too, I liked the idea of that – what exactly is the problem? Like of screen space on split screen? Maybe having full-screen flicking between each player would have been better (although very difficult to pull off due to ball speed)? Sounds like one for the old 3D split screen technique where you each see a different image on the same screen…

    Sony should have really included this a freebie though like Wii-Sports (like they have in the US)…

    • Its not enturely a freebie in the US though, their starter pack is acctually a bit dearer overall because it includes Sports Champions.

  8. Table tennis sounds like a real killer app, a proper way to show off the benefits of enhanced accuracy, which makes it very disappointing this hasn’t translated very well to 2 player.

    Nothing beats the fun of local multiplayer gaming, and it is that experience which will help sell Move, just like having fun around a Wii owners house helped sell the Wii, hopefully Sony can patch whatever is wrong with it by launch

  9. The table tennis was great split screen at the Beta room a few weeks back!

    • I did say it was a ‘personal’ low point, others may love it but I thought it didn’t translate well to split screen at all.

  10. Most sites list this as released on the 17th but I’m sure they would be selling it with move on day one the 15th, does anyone know for sure?

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