Deca Sports 3 Hands-On

It should come as no surprise that Hudson is coming out with yet another Deca Sports game because the series has been selling extremely well. Just like the previous games on the Wii, Deca Sports 3 is another compilation of popular sporting events that you can play with a friend or up to three in your living room. At Konami's Gamers Night in San Francisco, we checked out three of the 10 sports that have been included.

Who's Making This Game: Deca Sports 3 is being developed and published by Hudson; it is the fourth game in the franchise.

What the Game Looks Like: The game keeps things simple because it's primarily focused on the easy-to-access gameplay. There isn't a ton of detail or variety in the background, but that also keeps it from being distracting.

What There Is to Do: The 10 events that are included are: lacrosse, racquetball, indoor volleyball, fencing, air racing, giant slalom, half pipe, freestyle kayaking, logging, springboard diving. Lacrosse, racquetball, indoor volleyball, and fencing can be played online.

How the Game Is Played: Deca Sports 3 has added Wii MotionPlus functionality, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to or don't have the add-on. Before playing a sport, you can choose normal or master mode. Normal is without the Wii MotionPlus and features easier controls. For example, in lacrosse, you'll swing the Wii Remote to automatically pass, but if you're playing with the add-on, you'll have to aim in the right direction as well.

For giant slalom, you hold the remote and nunchuk as though you would hold ski poles then tilt left or right to turn. With the Wii MotionPlus, you can also adjust your speed and tilt the controllers forward or backward to crouch.

The other game that Hudson was showing off was air racing, where you use the remote only and try to get your plane to fly through blue and red gates. It's not as easy as it looks because you have to fly through the red gates sideways and then stay on track to fly straight through the blue gates. A map at the lower left corner of the screen will give you an idea of where to go, but the controls are sensitive and it's easy to overshoot your target. If you're using normal controls, you can hold the B button to automatically fly sideways, whereas with the Wii MotionPlus, you'll have to tilt the plane yourself.

What They Say: Simple controls let your entire family play together, while advanced controls let you take advantage of Wii MotionPlus.

What We Say: One of the biggest complaints about the previous Deca Sports games is that they were too easy. With the addition of the Wii MotionPlus, it does make the game a bit more challenging. It sticks to the same formula so you shouldn't be expecting anything groundbreaking here, but it looks to be another family-friendly sports compilation that is easy to pick up and play.

Deca Sports 3 will be arriving on the Wii this fall.