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SPORTS CHAMPIONS 2
Platform: PlayStation 3
86

Sports Champions 2 Review

The motion-control champion is back for round two

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There’s only one essential PlayStation Move game out there and that’s the first Sports Champions. Sony’s impressive motion control device has seen very little support from third-party publishers and has usually been relegated to so-so minigame compilations and tacked on support to FPS or sporting titles. Sometimes that’s been terrible like in Grand Slam Tennis 2, or when given first-party support it’s been very impressive as seen in Killzone 3.

Many would argue that Microsoft’s Kinect won the battle - certainly in terms of sales - but as far as decent games go, both devices have been a letdown. As this generation’s hardware winds down before the inevitable reveals next year, Zindagi have come back for a final round with the Move and I’m happy to report that after the minor blip that was Medieval Moves, they’re back on top form.

Sports Champions 2

Six sports are involved in the follow up to Sports Champions and the majority of them are excellent fun. Ten pin bowling, archery, boxing, skiing, tennis and golf are available. While players of the first game and the Wii Sports titles will find some games familiar, there’s enough variety and originality to make the package worthwhile. After all, you wouldn’t just own one FPS or footy game would you?

Ok, so let’s see how each game plays out. Ten-pin bowling is much more accessible than the boules game of the original and is the easiest game to pick up. Swerve is easy to apply with it seeming to work best if you continue to rotate the wrist after releasing the ball, despite the tutorial claiming you have to do it just before. If there’s one complaint about this mode, it’s that it’s a little too easy. I’m a poor bowler in real life and ‘just ok’ at bowling on the Wii. By my second game here, I managed eight strikes in a row.

If your friends are able to start racking up such decent scores straight away you might find yourself involved with lots of stalemates. The minigames do add some challenge though as speed bowling is the aim as you try to take down multiple lines of pins.

Sports Champions 2

Boxing is bloody exhausting, but fun. This really shows off how technically great Sony’s motion controllers are. For the best experience, you’ll need two controllers, one for each on-screen fist so you can take advantage of the true one-to-one tracking. Jabs, hooks, uppercuts and some strange, ungentleman-like skull hammer thing I invented all work well. Blocking headshots is well realised too, I had a few issues with blocking and hitting the body area though as I had to aim lower than what seemed necessary. If I were boxing a real person, the attacks would have been deemed below the belt for sure, to a savagely obsessive degree.

Squeezes of the triggers and physical lunges enable you to dodge and weave around your opponent, which you’ll want to master as the AI certainly has that skill nailed down. Occasionally I became frustrated as some shots don’t seem to have a physical impact on the opponent, despite the health bar taking a hit, they’ll just keep moving forward as if nothing’s happened, making tactical approaches a little unrewarding. Holding back a hand for a few seconds to build up a power shot, then driving it into your opponent’s face in slow-motion makes the fury go away though.

Fights can be knackering as you resort to arm flailing, which makes the inclusion of a stamina bar (in addition to a health bar) a little pointless. If you’re good to go, then that should be all that matters. You don’t need your avatar to be knackered if you’re going to end up that way too.

Sports Champions 2

If you only have two controllers (don’t even think of getting this with just the one controller), your two player options will be limited for boxing as you’ll have to use one each. Here the motion swinging controls one hand while buttons control the other. It’s a bit messy and feels like trying to use the TV remote in a moshpit, but considering the rest of the Move’s line-up, it’s hard to recommend forking out on four controllers. Buy two and take turns against the AI gets my vote.

Skiing is the best surprise Sports Champions 2 provided, by being heaps of fun, even more so considering my distaste for most winter sports titles. Again, this works best with two controllers to give you the edge in downhill races against AI opponents. Lean sideways to steer and tilting to flip midair is easy to pick up and get going with. Tucking in to get boosts of speed will be fun for your friends to mock you with too. Pumping fists to gain speed after a crash or up an incline could work better as not all pumps are always picked up by the PS Eye. I couldn’t really get used to the starts either as you propel yourself from the gates. Unlike the bowling though, it’s something that I could improve at over time as opposed to being awesome at from the off.

The golf game is the weakest member of the club. Whacking the ball from the tee worked well enough – just smash it. But anything requiring finesse seemed to provoke rage. A swing power metre for example, may indicate you need about 70% power to reach the pin. So with practice swings you can try to gauge how far back you need to swing, speed and how far forwards for both approach shots and putting. However, multiple practice swings show the power bar filling at wildly varying amounts despite similar swings being performed, making your actual attempt something of a lottery.

It’s not as poor when putting, but still not great. To be fair though, it’s the best golf I’ve played on the Move. Better than the tacked-on Tiger Woods efforts or even the full-on Move title John Daly’s Pro Stroke Golf. A backhanded compliment if ever there was one.

Sports Champions 2

You’d think that seeing as the last game had an excellent table tennis mode, regular tennis would be a doddle here. Sadly not. It’s far from a disaster but inconsistency with backhand shots makes it a frustrating experience. Player movement is handled automatically so you just have worry about hitting the ball. Forehands and serves work well, with even slices and topspin shots coming off with a smug level of satisfaction accompanying cruel drop shots.

Backhanders fail consistently though, sometimes because you may need to move the motion controller out of the Eye’s sights, meaning it will reset the motion. Even when the two keep in sight of each other, you’ll see your avatar jerkily flap at the ball long after it’s slowly bounced past him. It’s a shame this couldn’t be better as the rest of the sport works fine.

Archery is the only game that has been brought back in full from the first game, which is just fine as it’s still fantastic. Using two controllers, you perform the full motions that you would with a real bow and arrow. Grabbing the arrow from behind, lining it up on the bow, pulling back and releasing to fire. It’s the most realistic motion control I’ve experienced on any console and is an absolute must. You can play with one controller, which works well too, but it feels a bit like spell casting rather than firing pointy sticks of death.

Not that there’s much violence in this mode, but there is variety. Bull’s eye targets, fruit, skeleton cutouts and matching symbol minigames are amongst the challenges that await. These are fun in single and multiplayer as you try to rack up the best scores. While more of an expansion of the original’s archery mode, there’s enough here to avoid accusations of lazy recycling.

Sports Champions 2

Online multiplayer fans may be disappointed to hear that we don’t have any online options beyond leaderboard rankings, which is a shame, as you’ll need four controllers to provide the ultimate experience. However, I only have two and find that taking turns or using the one-controller options works well enough for most games. Not that I don’t keep trying to convince my friends to buy a PS Move Starter Kit so they can brings their controllers around.

Sports Champions 2 is a bit more user-friendly this time around and doesn’t obsess over synchronising the controllers for every game. Instead of having to do the whole ‘point at screen, then your belt etc’ exercise before every sport, you just point at the camera once when the game first boots up. Recalibration is simple to do if you’re playing with people of drastically different heights too. Left and right-handed options are also available.

One thing I wish they would include in games like this is some optional warm-up exercise as after a few hours (ok, minutes) I’d done damage. Boxing is the biggest offender, as you’re not actually hitting anything; it’s all too easy to over-reach. So, try to do a bit of stretching before a session, trust me it helps. Otherwise, you run the risk of having one of your arms being so sore you have to use your other hand to brush your teeth and almost end up losing an eye.

Our ratings for Sports Champions 2 on PlayStation 3 out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
Presentation
80
Opting for 'real people' over Wii-esque mutants gives the game a more grown up feel and the graphical detail is bright and crisp. Menus are easy to navigate as is changing between events when setting up party games.
Gameplay
90
After months of almost nothing / drivel to play on the PS Move you have to wonder why nobody else is able to get Sony's motion controller purring with such a playable energy. Even dodgy turns from golf and tennis can't detract from an otherwise excellent experience.
Single Player
87
Chasing high scores online and a long selection of events and minigames to get through will keep you coming back for more before and after the party.
Multiplayer
88
Works better the more controllers you have, with two being my recommended minimum so you can enjoy simultaneous play. Each game is simple to grasp with very little button presses required. If you can repeat a physical motion, you can play the game and probably play it well too.
Performance
83
Archery, bowling, skiing and boxing are excellent, with true one-to-one motion tracking outperforming similar games seen on the Wii and Kinect. A few moments where the PS Eye camera loses sight of the controller in golf and tennis hamper the experience, but the other games make it for it.
Overall
86
The best motion-controlled sports compilation on the market right now. Like the first game, it's well worth buying the PS Move for. Best enjoyed with multiple controllers, this is a must buy for both multiplayer and single-player action thanks to being easy to get into with enough challenges to make it last long after those boxing day sessions.
Comments
Sports Champions 2
Sports Champions 2 box art Platform:
PlayStation 3
Our Review of Sports Champions 2
86%
Great
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
Sports Champions 2 is ranked #119 out of 1957 total reviewed games. It is ranked #17 out of 145 games reviewed in 2012.
118. Cyberpunk 2077
PC
119. Sports Champions 2
120. FIFA 14
PlayStation 4
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Screenshots

Sports Champions 2
11 images added Nov 17, 2012 16:18
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