Big Beach Sports (Wii) Review
When Nintendo first released the Wii, included in the marvellous little white box was an exciting new type of game – Wii Sports. Wii Sports covered five basic sports, from baseball to tennis and even golf. The huge popularity of Wii Sports sparked many developers to create their own twist on the new virtual sport genre. The mini-game compilation is one such twist, and although Big Beach Sports is marketed as a sports title, it certainly feels like a bunch of mini-games with waggle controls thrown in. It’s not all bad though as it marks the first time cricket is playable on the Wii – although that’s not exactly one of the game’s saving graces.
The most important thing to remember about Big Beach Sports is that the game was clearly not designed for teenagers, young adults or adults, but for children. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely something that potential buyers should be aware of. The next thing to remember about Big Beach Sports is that it’s a budget title. As such, the graphics in Big Beach Sports aren’t very impressive at all. Although the developers have tried to present the player with a rich world, teeming with the hustle and bustle you’d expect to find at a holiday resort, it’s incredibly bland and crude in presentation.
After booting up Big Beach Sports, players can decide who will play, choose between tournament style play or free play, or create their own characters. What’s probably the most intriguing and unique feature of Big Beach Sports is the ability to load face creator software onto the Nintendo DS to design a custom character using the stylus and touch screen. Our team managed to come up with some hilarious and unique faces, with a lot of the fun stemming from this simple yet well executed feature. THQ must be commended for including such a feature as it really allows the player to add a personal touch to their character, and with no Mii support, it is very welcome. Big Beach Sports offers a total of six sports to play, all orientated around a beach setting.
The sports include volleyball, disc golf, cricket, bocce ball, soccer and football (rugby). First up was volleyball, which is a game that in theory should work well with the Wiimote, but in practice doesn’t really work well at all. Several of our players decided that it just worked better to randomly shake the controller as the game had great deal of difficulty interpreting the various Wiimote movements. Put simply, it wasn’t very fun. This may have been done to ensure younger children were not overwhelmed by the controls and it should still provide a reasonable level of entertainment for younger players. Second comes disc golf, which is played just like normal golf, but with a frisbee instead. Disc golf is one of the better games in Big Beach Sports, being a very simplistic yet accessible game that is quite enjoyable when played with other people.
Bocce Ball was the next sport sampled and it disappointed. Similar to bowling, except within a smaller scale, bocce ball’s biggest problem was that it did not translate one of the key components of the actual game of bocce into this electronic version – precision. The aim of bocce ball is to get one of your larger balls to stop closest to the smaller ball (jack). Naturally, this should require a varying degree of throwing strength in order to land the ball just right. Instead bocce ball on Big Beach Sports doesn’t account for the strength of the throw and the game slowly dissolves into a poorly orchestrated game of luck. Once again, we can hypothesise that this decision was made to entertain young children, and as such, the decision was fitting. Next up was soccer, and although it sounds like an exciting prospect, it really isn’t. Soccer is controlled with the d-pad and buttons, with a little bit of Wiimote waggle thrown in for power shots. This made soccer disappointing and something that could have been accomplished on any other console.
Unfortunately, several bugs were also encountered such as characters not reacting when coming into contact with the ball, and a general unresponsive feel to the movement. Football was the next game, which was similar in style to rugby. The controls for rugby were quite simple and enjoyable with responsive player movements. Football only allows players to pass the ball or intercept it, with no controls implemented for running besides shaking the Wiimote vigorously. Once again, those who were on the defending team of our group found themselves just shaking the Wiimote in the hope of winning the ball and it almost always worked. The extreme simplicity really holds the game back, but we can’t complain as younger children would probably find it much more enjoyable than we did.
Finally was the sport we’d all been waiting for – beach cricket. Big Beach Sports, as previously mentioned, is the first Wii game to feature cricket as a playable sport, with its omission from Wii Sports and several other compilations a huge missed opportunity. There is a lot of potential here, with some brilliant execution, for a highly enjoyable game, but ultimately Big Beach Sports disappoints. Cricket plays exactly like Wii Sports’ baseball, with one player bowling the ball and the other batting. Fielding and running between wickets is handled automatically.
However, where Wii Sports allowed free control of the bat, Big Beach Sports only allows for two positions, of which is hard to pull off as desired due to a general lack of accuracy in reading the Wiimote’s position. It would also have been nice to see a system implemented where the Wiimote is used to run to safety or to even catch a ball, but unfortunately it wasn’t included. Big Beach Sports has a pretty good soundtrack which is designed to set mood for a day at the beach. A combination of drums, maracas and several other tropical themed instruments really make the player feel as if they are at a beach resort. The only real problem with the soundtrack is that there is very little variation between the tracks and the repetitive nature of the music will really irk some gamers, especially when creating a custom character. Regardless of the repetition, Big Beach Sports has a competent soundtrack that properly suits its purpose and context.
Overall, Big Beach Sports is a somewhat disappointing title for the average gamer. Although, the important thing to note is that it is primarily designed as a budget title for a younger audience and in that regard, Big Beach Sports does what it sets out to do. The sheer simplicity of the mini-games makes it very suitable for younger children, and as such it’s hard to give Big Beach Sports a bad score as it ultimately meets its intended purpose. For those hoping Big Beach Sports will provide as much fun and depth as Wii Sports, be prepared to look elsewhere. For anyone looking for a title younger children will enjoy and find easy to play, Big Beach Sports comes highly recommended.
