More than just PSWii Sports?
There’s bound to be comparisons to the Wii when it comes to Playstation Move. Sports Champions will also be compared to Wii Sports due to the similar activities like archery, table tennis and duels. But Move is meant to be more accurate than the Wii, so does this game show off why Move is better than Nintendo’s console?
If there’s one problem with Sports Champions, it’s that you have to calibrate the Move controllers each time you choose a sport. Some activities use two Move controllers, while others use one. You can get away with using just the one, but it’s more accurate and more enjoyable with two with the likes of gladiator duels and archery.
Bocce and Disc Golf are pretty forgettable and serve only a purpose to show what you can do with Move. The problem with the sports are that they don’t have the precision that they should have, Gladiator Duels, Archery and Beach Volleyball just don’t feel accurate enough for my liking. It’s also a shame that there are only a small number of activities that you’ll get bored of quickly. You can play competitively, but you need between 2-4 Move controllers for that and it can become expensive.
Despite the imperfections, the most fun I had with Sports Champions is with Gladiator Duels. Wielding a sword and shield with two controllers is pretty cool and I hope that future Move games take note of this, but perfect it instead of making it handle gimmicky. Table Tennis and Archery handle like that of Wii Sports Resort and don’t really benefit from the Move controllers.
Visually, Sports Champions is fairly strong for a Move launch title. Character models are nicely detailed and the stages for the events are designed well. You can also play custom music in-game which is a nice feature.
The Verdict
So it’s not exactly perfect, but Sports Champions is a good first step for Playstation Move to show what it can do. It does replicate your gestures great, but the game lacks the precision in the events and it would have been nice to have some extra ones added to the list. No doubt that there will probably be a Sports Champions 2 somewhere down the line that will fix these problems.
