The Deca Sports series of athletic game compilations have sold 4 million units worldwide on video game consoles like the Wii, DS, and Xbox Kinect. Now you can play ten more with Deca Sports Extreme for Nintendo 3DS.

Before you jump right in, you can edit a team and its four players. Choose the team name, colors, and symbol. Then you can edit each of the four team members and choose their gender, name, and appearance. You can also pick what power moves they’ll use and distribute points to boost their stats when you level up. You gain experience points and level up by playing different sports (You get more points if you perform well and win).

You can play each sport separately or in a row with a tournament in single player. Up to four nearby 3DS players can compete in each sport together, and not everyone needs to have a game card either! By collecting glowing icons in the events, you can use special moves to give you a boost. After leveling up your team, you can increase your stats, learn new moves, unlock new team colors, emblems, and other goodies. Really the only problem with Deca Sports Extreme is that some of the games aren’t as fun some others. And the 3-D effect is used very lightly and isn’t as eye-popping.

Of course, the highlight of these games are the sports, so here are the ten you can play in Deca Sports Extreme:

Basketball

It’s just a standard 3-on-3 basketball game using the controller and buttons. No touch screen support or anything like that. It’s also pretty challenging, even on the easy setting. It does get better once you’ve leveled up your team enough, but still hard.

Tennis

Just like basketball, this is pretty standard singles or doubles tennis, using only the controller. Also pretty hard, too.

Soccer

Out of the first three games here that use the standard controller and buttons, soccer is the most fun and playable. Not quite as hard, but still pretty challenging.

Ice Hockey

Finally, we get to a game that uses touch screen support. When you have the puck, slide the stylus on the touch screen to pass and shoot. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, though.

Snowball Fight

This is actually a pretty fun little ‘capture the flag’ variant. Run around a snowfield and throw snowballs at the other team to stun them. Each side of the field has walls to hide behind. And in the middle of the field is a post. Whoever picks up the post can’t throw snowballs, but they can carry the post back to their side of the field. When it is on your side, you’ll accumulate points. But you’ll drop the post if you get hit. Whoever gets to 100 points first, wins.

Sumo Wrestling

Your players don padded Sumo suits in this game of push and shove. Hit buttons to shove the other character in different ways, or grapple them to lower their stamina. Whoever gets pushed out of the ring first, loses.

Bowling

Video bowling games are usually pretty fun and simple, and the one here is no exception. Use the control pad to adjust and aim, and slide the stylus on the touch screen to roll your ball down the lane. You can choose how many frames you play, so if you don’t have time for a full ten, you can shorten it down for a quicker game. You can do regular lanes or a Challenge mode with obstacles on the lanes, too! Definitely one of the better events on this collection.

Snowmobile Racing

It’s just standard 3-D racing around a track. If you’re good at racing games, you’ll zip through this easily.

Sport Blowgun

This archery style target practice game uses the motion capabilities of the 3DS. Tilt and move the 3DS to adjust your aim, and blow into the microphone to shoot. It’s pretty tough to keep things steady as you exhale, though.

Trampoline

Finally, in this one you’ll do tricks in the air by pressing the right buttons at the right time. Then when you fall, you’ll have to use the control stick to control your decent so you land on the trampoline and not fall off.

Kid Factor:

Deca Sports Extreme is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Cartoon Violence. But really, the most violent things you do in the game are push people around in padded Sumo suits, and throw snowballs at each other. Reading skill is a must for the text instructions, but the game can be considered slightly educational because it teaches the basic rules of some sports. Some younger players and less experienced sports gamers may find some of the events very challenging and might get frustrated, though.

Tags: Game Reviews