Game Review: Big League Sports (Wii)
Ever since it was released, the Wii console comes packaged with a surprisingly fun game to show off the capabilities of the Wii remote. That game is Wii Sports. Game makers have tried to imitate the fun of Wii Sports with their own motion controlled sports collections, but none have been as fun as the original. Now the ball has been passed to Big League Sports. Read on to find out if it has what it takes.
Big League Sports is a little misleading. While it does feature six types of sports (football, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, tennis, and soccer), you don’t play a full game of any of those. It’s all mini-games based on activities you do in each sport. Toss free throws or slam dunks in basketball, kick goals or block balls in soccer, or make touchdown runs in football. Each of the six sports has 3 or 4 mini-game challenges to participate in.
Players can create their own avatar to use in the game (sorry, no Miis allowed), and earn trophies by getting high scores. More than four players can compete in the mini-game tournaments, too. Unfortunately, the motion remote controls aren’t very responsive, and only a few of the games, like tennis pinball and touchdown runs, are any fun. Wii Sports is still the champ.
Kid Factor:
Big League Sports is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Cartoon Violence. You can get tackled in the football games, but that’s it. Reading skill is helpful for the instructions, but there are picture cues to show how to use the remote as well. Although, even the pictures are a bit vague. Kids who may not be patient enough to play a full sports game may enjoy the mini-challenges in Big League Sports. But otherwise, Wii owners already have the best sports game on the Wii (Wii Sports). I actually like We Ski a lot also, though.
December 14th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Yeah it’s amazing WiiSports is still the pinnacle.
Nintendo is just so much more talented than the others guys I guess and/or they got the in-house hardware knowledge advantage. After 2 years though you’d think some of these guys would catch up.
Maybe it’s also a design philosophy. Nintendo tends to go with fewer options and features and concentrates on making the core game design experience really smooth. Or so it seems to me.
December 14th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I think the only other Wii sports title that has managed to control well and is pretty fun is Wii Ski. I also played Hudson’s Deca Sports at PAX and it didn’t seem too bad. Hudson and Namco (and Capcom) are third parties that have a pretty good grasp about how the Wii should work. –Cary
December 18th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I tried to get into WeSki, but the whole navigate around the mountain thing (to get to the core game) made it look like it was going to be work and I quit.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:44 am
You can pull up a map and point at locatons to ‘warp’ around the mountain. Makes things a lot easier. –Cary