Take the fun of Wii Sports, add a dollop of international sporting flavor, a dash of the Nintendo DS game Drawn to Life, and put it all on the beach, and you'll end up with THQ's upcoming Big Beach Sports for the Nintendo Wii. This evening, at THQ's annual press event in San Francisco, GameSpot had a chance to kick some sand around in a preview version of Big Beach to see how this family-friendly game is shaping up ahead of its release later this year.
The evolution of the Wii has yet to be realized. There are any number of titles that sport a lot of mini games, bank on the Wii-mote characteristics but drop the ball in advancing the whole idea behind using the motion-sensitive characteristics of the Wii-mote. What gamers are left with are a bunch of games that offer little that is new or different and don't relieve that with a deeper gaming experience.
Gameplay 3.5
Graphics 3
Sound 2.5
Difficulty Easy/Med
Concept 4
Multiplayer 4.5
Overall 4.0
It's funny. Wii Sports established these winning gameplay mechanics that third-parties have been unable to run with in the two years since its release. Big Beach Sports is the latest example. A true cash-in project that ignores some of the great control fundamentals laid down with Nintendo's game for an unintelligent waggle-and-win design.Just about everything about this game is lackluster, from uninspired controls to the extremely shallow nature of the minis. Seriously, don't bother -- not even for the bargain bin price.
Presentation - 4.0
Graphics - 4.0
Sound - 3.0
Gameplay - 2.0
Lasting Appeal - 1.0
Overall -
WP reports:
''It seems like not a week goes by when another pretender of Wii Sports is released, trying to suck up the loose bits of cash floating around the pockets of unaware gamers who think that the poseur title will surely be enough to help them get by until Wii Sports Resort makes its debut. This week, the game that's trying to cash in is Big Beach Sports, and you would do well to stay far, far away.
At first glance, Big Beach Sports seems promising. It features six different events (bocce ball, cricket, disc golf, football, soccer and volleyball), and the manual makes the controls seem so simple that anyone could just pick up a Wiimote and start having a blast. Things continue to look up as you create your own character. While the game itself offers a fairly wide variety of pre-built characters, those with a DS can create and customize their own beachgoer via a wireless connection, and proceed to make an avatar just as crazy and out-there as possible. You can tinker with your character's brows, ears, eyes, mouth and nose, and the variety of drawing tools and colors means that if you can dream it, you can pretty much do it. With these promising experiences, I was downright excited to get into my first event and see what the game had to offer; it was the last time I would ever feel any joy playing Big Beach Sports.''
