With Nintendo holding out on a Wii Sports sequel, Hudson hopes to fill the void with Deca Sports. Available May 13, Deca Sports comes packed with 10 unique activities, all of which utilize the motion sensitive Wii remote (and in some instances, the Nunchuk), giving you the opportunity to swing your arms around and work up a sweat. We recently plowed through a four game demo and came away somewhat entertained, and a little winded.

First up was badminton and it works simply enough. After choosing a team (the game offers all-boy, all-girl and mixed squads), we hit the court and looked to crush the competition. To swat the shuttle, we swung the remote upwards, and bringing it down hard caused our characters to perform a smash. It's cool, and we were able to sustain lengthy volleys, but badminton is nowhere near as deep as Wii Tennis. There doesn't appear to be an option to put some extra oomph on our serves, and it's difficult directing the shuttle, especially since you view the action from an isometric perspective. We don't see ourselves rushing to play this one, but our games did get pretty heated.

Next up was super cross, which supports 1-4 players. We selected the number of laps (1, 3 and 5) as well as the course (beginner, intermediate and advanced) and then hit the dirt, winding around corners and flying off hills while holding the Wii remote horizontally and tilting it left and right. Much like badminton, super cross is a good time, but it's limited, with little variation to the scenery.

After beating the computer several times, we moved to beach volleyball. To serve, we swung the remote up and followed through. Swinging the remote upwards gave our teammate a great setup, and we spiked the ball by swinging downwards when the ball glowed red. Blocking spikes, however, took considerable effort. Despite the controls sounding simple enough (swing upwards just as the opponent goes for the spike), we couldn't get the hang of it.

Last, but not least was figure skating, which oddly enough was our favorite. Deca Sports offers three programs of increasing difficulty (Madame Butterfly, Carmen and Violin Concerto), each presents a set number of moves you should complete. These include the 2+2 Spin Jump, Triple Spin Jump and Flying Camel Spin. To pull these off, we directed our skaters by using the nunchuk's analog stick, following a pattern of yellow dots. Occasionally, a large colored circle (red, blue) appeared, and when we passed through it, we shook the remote, which caused our skater to bust out a fancy ballet of maneuvers. Simple on paper, but in practice, we fell on our butts several times because we went for the moves too early.

On one hand, Deca Sports offers a much more robust package than Wii Sports, offering you the aforementioned sports, plus kart racing, basketball, archery, snowboarding, soccer and curling. On the downside, these games have limited options and you can't play with your Mii characters. It also doesn't help that Deca Sports has competition in the form of D3's Summer Sports, which hits the Wii on April 15 and has very enjoyable games of horseshoes, basketball and beach volleyball. With that said, there's room for both, and we can't wait to check them out.

Related Links

Deca Sports Game Guide