'Wacky World Of Sports' (Wii)

Also available on: N/A
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Sports
Release date: September 18, 2009

The world of oddball sports has recently come to the fore as strange, furtive individuals emerge from their hidey holes to proudly proclaim a love for shin kicking, cheese rolling or ironing a shirt atop a mountain. There's even the nude beach Olympics in Australia for anyone brave or possibly stupid enough to take part. As these quirky pastimes pretty much always raise a smile (apart from maybe shin kicking), Sega is hoping to replicate the curious thrill with Wacky World Of Sports. However, the paltry selection of mini-games in this wafer-thin package provides only fleeting moments of enjoyment at best, meaning that only the seriously wacky would consider purchasing it.

The game supports single-player or multiplayer action for up to four people. Lone players can tackle the tour mode, which is set out on a world map and involves competing in individual events before taking on a sort of boss character to secure victory. Performance in each of the events is graded and also earns the player gold currency which can be spent in Dr Gerbillius' Sports Emporium on new equipment. The game is indeed wackily presented, with bright colours and camp characters assaulting the player at every turn with Sega's usual cheesy dialogue snippets. Largely, everything feels well put together, but the remarkable aspect is just how flimsy the game's actual content really is.

Available in both tour and multiplayer, the ten different events in Wacky World Of Sports are all based on real-world oddball sports. However, the events are largely just simple replications of tried and tested video game sports, but wrapped in zany, colourful packaging. For example, the tuna toss is just the hammer throw, with the player throwing a fish instead of the usual implement. Alternatively, ice golf is just, well, golf with the added touch that players risk freezing if they take too long with a shot. There is also a lot of frantic Wii Remote shaking in a rather uninspiring pole vaulting event across a lake. The glaring point in all of this is that these are sports that have been presented much better in other video games, and the new 'wacky' twists applied here are neither innovative or very much fun.

Lawn mower racing and furniture racing are basically just variants of Mario Kart Wii, including using the same control system. They are well presented and briefly enjoyable, but there is no real motivation to choose them over their vastly superior inspiration. Card boxing, a take on chess boxing, mixes Wii Sports-style boxing rounds with a memory game, which is basically just pairs with a few bonus cards thrown in. Cheese rolling adopts a ten pin bowling-style control system, with the added facet that the player must direct the cheese around concentric circles to score points from marked areas.

There are other more custom-made sports, such as log cutting (with bombs thrown in for some reason) and also the headline game, extreme ironing. It might seem that ironing a shirt while skydiving down to earth would be a rush, but unfortunately it isn't. Playing these games with other people on the multiplayer does provide some fleeting fun, but this will quite quickly ebb away. Following the success of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Sega knows that presenting well-known sports in a new package can be a hit. However, Wacky World Of Sports falls short in that it does not offer enough substance that is new or indeed fun to justify its existence.

Overall, Wacky World Of Sports is a rather pointlessly cobbled together selection of mini-games that offers insufficient wackiness to hide its rather uninspiring and overly familiar gameplay. There is simply not enough in this package to warrant a boxed release, indeed a digital offering on WiiWare would probably have been more appropriate. While there is initial fun in playing the mini-games alone, and slightly longer enjoyment playing with friends, most gamers will quite quickly tire of the wackiness and instead reach for the console off-switch.



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