Sports Champions 2 Review

Sport Champions 2 hopes to build one the success of the initial Move launch title. One things that was certain when the Move launched – it needed killer apps. What happened wasn’t exactly that but a few stars did emerge. One such star was Zindagi Games’ Sports Champions.

One of my picks of the entire Move line-up, even now just over 2 years after launch, was Sports Champions. It’s mixture of sports mini games were at worst functional and at best hugely entertaining. Stand out moments for the game were those involving the incredibly well handled Archery sections – it showed just how poor the Nintendo Wii offerings were. Now we’re back once again to see what Zindagi Games can do with the much maligned PS Move setup.

The new package trots off a new series of mini-games for your consideration. Putting archery, boxing, golf, bowling, skiing, and tennis in to the mix to help vary your experiences. Sports Champions 2 focuses more on the party play aspect that its predecessor ever did.

Once again the game looks reasonable enough. Move games are never going to get the same level of investment that a title like Uncharted or infamous is going to get to they make do with the resources on hand. The game looks good, solid and the frame rate keeps the whole things perky and playable at all times. You are saddled with some incredible load times though and this can be more than frustrating at times.

The Move controller, as stated a score of times before, is such a precise tool. Allowing minute adjustments to your play or aim. Most of the time the controller behaves itself and only a few niggles here and there creep in – but this is evident in 99% of all motion based games and not an indicator of the quality of Sports Champions 2.

The mini-games, as ever in a compilation like this, vary in quality. Archery is still the golden child of the pack. Using it with or without a second Move controller it still manages to be great fun and a great addition to anyone’s party game rotation.

A close second to the archery must be the bowling. Chomping at the heels of the much loved Wii Bowling, this interpretation is just as fun, aesthetically more pleasing and a great all round party favourite – unless you’re all tapped out on Wii Bowl that is.

Boxing and skiing are reasonable and pass a small amount of time on each. The golf is rudimentary but, much like Wii Golf, fits in well enough with the overall package. The finer granularity of the Move comes in handy here and once again justifies the hardwares title as king of the motion controllers. The only real gripe about the whole package would have to be the slightly broken aspects of the tennis mini-game. It just doesn’t feel or act as expected and more often than not ends in frustration – which is a shame as tennis can be done very well with the Move (Just look at EA’s offering).

Final Thoughts

There is nothing offensive about Sports Champions 2. It serves it’s purpose well as a nice collection of mini-games for the game stared PS Move owners out there. With a price tag of sub £18 on most outlets you’ll get your monies worth out of the archery and bowling alone.

Long load times, mediocre looks and a feeling that nothing really ahs moved on since the original Sports Champions shipped back 2010 all compound to rob the game of a higher scoring review.

That said, Sports Champions 2, is a solid and enjoyable addition and a worth consideration for anybodys family/post-pub play list.