Playstation Move/Sports Champions

Since Nintendo got gamers and non-gamers alike to get up off their couches and game (and making lots of money in the process), Sony and Microsoft have been looking for a way to get into motion gaming and get a piece of the action. The Playstation Move is Sony’s attempt at swaying gamers into buying in on a more precise, higher definition version of what they can already find on the Wii. Nowhere is it more apparent that Sony is trying to copy the Nintendo formula than Sports Champions.

If you’ve played Wii Sports (and honestly, if you’re a gamer nowadays, odds are you have), then you know the deal here. Sports Champions is a bundle of sports-related games whose purpose is to show off the motion controller, in this case, the Playstation Move. Included within are disc golf (think frisbee meets golf), gladiator duel (I’m not sure this is actually a sport), archery, beach volleyball, bocce and table tennis. You choose from a number of multi-ethnic avatars to play as, although it doesn’t make much of a difference since they all play exactly the same and most of the time you don’t get to see them anyway. Then you compete in one of three tournaments (bronze, silver and gold to denote the difficulty level), playing against more and more difficult opponents.

While all the games are enjoyable to some degree, some are more enjoyable than others. Gladiator duel was probably the biggest letdown. At times, it was hard to gauge how my flailing translated into my character’s swinging on screen. During the challenge levels, you’re supposed to swing and hit specific parts of the body. I found that I needed to over exaggerate my motions to get the avatar to swing higher or lower. Blocking with the shield was sometimes problematic too. Since I’m a leftie, I obviously chose to play holding the controller in my left hand. But I found that my shield blocks tended to favor my left and that if I wanted to block a swing coming in from the right, I’d have to dramatically move the controller to my right.

For most of the other games, the disconnect between controller motion and on-screen movement wasn’t as much of a problem. The only other noticeable issue was when trying to block a spike in beach volleyball. I couldn’t figure out how far I had to lean my arms in either direction to try to block in that direction and it was frustrating to lose a point because the game didn’t do what I wanted it to do. Luckily, that’s only about ten percent of the matches. The other 90 percent is fine and became my go to game in Sports Champions.

Disc golf was fairly straightforward. There is a learning curve since we’re basically talking about simulation of real objects and physics. At first, I couldn’t throw the frisbee where I wanted it to go, but as I played more, I adjusted the game to my particular play style and was able to do much better. Bocce is also pretty straightforward, since it’s essentially just rolling different sized balls. It is a little odd to adjust to the lack of varying weights of the balls though.

Table tennis is probably the best showcase for the Move’s precision and accuracy. You swing the controller just like an actual paddle and the ball responds just like you’d expect it would. Although, at the higher levels of difficulty it can be a little frustrating if you’re not a seasoned ping pong player.

All of the games can be played with just one Move controller, although a few (gladiator duel, archery and beach volleyball) can be played with two. (I only played with one since the bundle only comes with one...) Of all the games included, archery seems like it’d be more fun with two controllers. With one, it was nothing more than mimicking pulling an arrow out of an imaginary quiver, pointing the controller at the screen and releasing the trigger. With two controllers, you use them to mimic an actual bow, which seems like it’d be more fun. In gladiator duel, one controller is your sword and the other is the shield, which may or may not correct the problem of favoring of your dominant side with the shield. But I’m not sure what, if any, changes there would be with volleyball.

For all it’s accuracy and fidelity, Sports Champions feels sterile. (Which actually kind of fits in with how Playstation Home felt when it launched... and still might feel, I don’t know, I haven’t logged into Home in a while...) The objects you interact with (balls, swords, arrows, etc.) all make their expected noises, but your avatars will only let out the occasional grunt or sigh. Other than the introductory animations, your avatars don’t have personalities of their own. I guess the expectation is for you to project your own personality onto those avatars? Or maybe it’s a conscious decision to keep with the simulation feel?

Either way, Sports Champions is a blank slate. It’s a mostly accurate simulation of the games and is a pretty good showcase for the Playstation Move controller. But it isn’t the killer app like Wii Sports was for Nintendo. This may be Sony’s first attempt at motion gaming, but motion gaming has been around for four years and at this point, I expect a little more.

Rating

The other issue here is the Playstation Move technology as a whole. Right now there isn’t a killer app for the Move. There aren’t even a whole lot of Move games. Some games, like Heavy Rain are being retrofitted with Move enabled controls, but there aren’t many of those out there either. The Move is intriguing to me, but I’d say hold off on buying it until there’s a game you actually want to play.

Recommendations