Big Beach Sports Wii Review

Big Beach Sports

Wii Review
Developer: THQ
Publisher: THQ
Released: June 24, 2008

Ever since the success of Wii Sports on the Nintendo Wii, there have been several releases which have tried to steal the thunder and match what the game managed to accomplish. The latest effort comes from THQ with Big Beach Sports.

The game carries a budget price tag of $30 and features six beach-related activities in total. There are six events including Frisbee golf, cricket, American football, soccer, volleyball, as well as a French sport called boules.

All of the games features here have their high points and their low points, while some are clearly far more enjoyable than others.

The best out of the bunch has to be Frisbee golf, as it required a great deal of time for you to fully master the throwing techniques in the game.

On top of that, some of the other games are decent, as volleyball is probably in second in ranking the six games. In volleyball, you swing your arms around as you would in the real game to hit the ball up in the air.

The remaining games are not all that great, as soccer, American football, boules, and cricket are pretty lame to say the least.

All of the games are kept very simple for the casual gamers out there. For example, in volleyball all you have to worry about is swinging your arms to hit the ball and keep it in play. Your characters will move and get in position on their own. To be honest, it is actually very similar to the setup of tennis on Wii Sports.

The highlight of the game, and the only time it is worth the $30 price tag, is when you have four players to play with, as some of these games make for solid multiplayer fun.

Unfortunately, as a single player effort the game is severely lacking as the only real rewards for completing the tournaments is that you unlock some playable characters and medals, which in reality you really won’t care all that much about.

From a visual standpoint, the game looks pretty bad. The characters lack detail, and are not as polished as Wii Sports and some of the other more casual releases out there. On top of that, the detail in the background scenery also does very little for your eyes, as the Wii could have handled much more to make it feel like you were on a beach.

To top it off, and this is probably the fault of Nintendo more than it is of the developer, is the fact that you cannot use your pre-created Mii characters in the game. Instead, the game features a very poor and bland character customization tool. Again though, this is probably Nintendo not allowing the developers to incorporate the Miis rather than a choice.

Overall, Big Beach Sports may seem like a great purchase at the forefront if you like Wii Sports, but when you consider that it is $30, and not all that much fun, you are better off passing here. Some of the activities are enjoyable, but this is best kept as a rental if you are having a party, nothing else.

Graphics: 5.0 The Wii can certainly do much better than this, very bland colors, and a severe lack of detail.

Audio: 6.0 The audio is respectable, but overall lacks any variety.

Gameplay: 5.5 A few of the games are fun, but beyond that the rest of the games do not work.

Replay Value: 5.5 As a multiplayer game, there is some fun to be had for a few nights, but after a few hours everyone will be done with it.

Final Score: 5.8

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Interested in picking up this release? Head over to Amazon at the link here Big Beach Sports