Sandy Beach looks and plays like a hastily thrown together game that could have greatly benefited from longer development time. Of course, this would have resulted in a higher price tag for the customer. If you remember that you get what you pay for, you may very well extract some limited enjoyment from Sandy Beach, but our advice is to avoid this bargain-basement release and save your Wii Points for something more worthwhile.
Summer’s here and the Nintendo DSi Shop and Wii Shop Channel have got a selection of scorchers on offer this week, available today, Friday 6th August. Whether you’re defending sandcastles from crafty crabs on a Sandy Beach, or flaunting your fighting technique in Aero the Acrobat 2, WiiWare and Virtual Console have got plenty to keep you occupied.
Sandy Beach is an extremely simple, casually-focused creation tool with a flimsy little tower defense mode added on. The sound effects and music are really bland, the visuals are nothing special (though they get the job done for what's already a very basic offering), but the game works for what it is.
Presentation - 5.0
Graphics - 5.0
Sound - 2.5
Gameplay - 5.5
Lasting Appeal - 4.5
Overall -
1up writes: "Now here's a sandbox game that uses the term quite literally -- Sandy Beach is one part sandcastle building, and one part tower defense (sort of) against scimitar-wielding, pirate-hat wearing crabs. That the game is also equal parts shallow and hard to control make it seem like little more than a tossed-off curiosity, which is probably why it's found in the five dollar pile on WiiWare."
