The Wii may be all the rage these days as titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy keep gamers happy while more casual players are enticed with the unit's bountiful shovelware, but many have forgotten about the game that led Nintendo's initiative to expand the market by bringing casual and non-gamers into the mix: Wii Sports. Serving as an introduction to the system and the Wii Remote, it was a fun minigame collection that earned accolades from a plethora of mainstream media outlets and fueled the hype machine that helped propel the Wii to the top of the sales charts.

Most of us moved on to other games soon after purchasing the system, but publisher Hudson Soft apparently hasn't been so quick to forget the game that spearheaded Nintendo's assault on your grandmother's living room. Deca Sports, one of their upcoming titles, is an obvious foray into the new market that Nintendo has forged.

Supercross is as straightforward as you'd expect it to be; you hold the remote sideways, pressing the 2 button to gas and the 1 button to brake as you make turning motions to steer. Wide motions during turns cause you to lose control, which means that this event is aggravating unless you severely limit your motions, hampering the overall experience.

The badminton event plays very much like Wii Tennis, but the difference is in how the birdie reacts to your hits. The ball in Wii Tennis wasn’t very reactive to location, while here your swings really do determine the angle and trajectory of the hit. It’s a definite improvement, and the shortness of the rounds makes it good for bursts of play.

The beach volleyball event, where you and a friend (or an AI partner if you’re by your lonesome) can play against another team in a standard game of volleyball, is especially fun. The controls feel really fresh and immersive. It feels great to flail madly and work with your partner to keep the ball alive and then smash it over the net into the sand

What really stands out for its uniqueness is the figure skating event. You utilize the Nunchuk to guide your skater across a path of yellow dots while you use the remote to perform tricks as you skate across large, colored icons that occasionally appear on the path. However, the poor controls make it difficult to keep your skater on track, and it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out how and when to execute tricks. On the whole, though, Deca Sports warrants checking out if Hudson Soft successfully blends the game's fun elements with its more unique events.

Ahh - looks, feels, and smells like 1999. Now that's bad fish.

Sega Bass Fishing services Wii anglers with a standard variety of modes. Arcade mode naturally features arcade style stage by stage play – catch a bass of a minimum size within a certain period of time or you're out of luck. Tournament mode plays somewhat differently, requiring prolonged competition with other anglers. Nature trip mode loses the restraints of other modes and allows you to fish at your own pace. Actually catching a fish is surprisingly simple and within a minute or two in any mode you'll be able to reel in a bass, even though it might not be the big one.

The fish you're dying not to catch.

Unfortunately you'll quickly discover that catching fish is not the deepest of activities; you just cast, wait, and reel in, ad nauseam. While the audio cues of the announcer can add some unintended humor and immediate urgency to the action of reeling in a bass, the game's dated presentation with its smarmy textures and simple environments reeks of a shoddy Dreamcast port that Sega didn't feel the need to update for this Wii release. While some parts of the presentation are period turn-of-the-century Sega including the aforementioned overly joyous announcer and some rather out of place female vocals in the options music, any points gained by this quaintness are easily negated by its sloppy visuals.

Controlling the game with the Wii Remote may seem like an intuitive setup at first. The Wii Remote acts as the fishing rod, which you can flick back and forth to cast the line and tug it left or right while in the water; conversely, the Nunchuk reels in the line. The truth of the matter is that these motion controls were essentially ported over wholesale from the game's previous analog scheme, so waggling the Wii Remote or Nunchuk in any direction will have the same effect as pressing a button. That being said, the game does not control poorly, but seems gimmicky.

Some good can be said of Sega Bass Fishing, primarily its lower price-point, which may actually be $10 more than it warrants in light of its pre-twenty-first century origins. If the Wii Remote controls were incorporated more appropriately it would deserve a better recommendation, but its nostalgic Sega presentation can't hide its relative mediocrity.

The game will allow players to play a variety of sports mini-games through the EyeToy. Kuju studio head Ed Daly said. "The Play Sports project underlines Kuju's commitment to lifestyle/social gaming, reaching out to parts of the market that other games can't reach."

Currently EyeToy: Play Sports is scheduled to release in Europe at the end of 2006. No word if the game will be making its way stateside.

“EA is the premiere sports videogame developer and we’re thrilled to have worked with them on this project,” said Glenn Horine, President, AFL Properties. “EA SPORTS Arena Football captures the passion of our sport and gives fans an opportunity to experience the action for themselves.”

“The AFL was an amazing league to work with and we strived to create a game that accurately depicts their unique brand of football,” said Mike Taramykin, Senior Producer, EA Tiburon. “Arena Football has features that will appeal to both AFL fans and sports fans alike.”

The game is rated “E10+” (Everyone 10 and older) with descriptors: Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes, by the ESRB and has an MSRP of $29.99 for both console versions.