Hudson Entertainment's Gamers' Day event had a few new titles to show off, but occupying its own corner was a somewhat older face: Deca Sports, Hudson's sport-oriented compilation for the Wii, which launched back in May to a rather frosty reception. Cited as shallow, derivative, and bearing no appeal for "core" gamers, Deca Sports represents an unfortunate trend for that latter group -- the increased frequency of casual-friendly titles, forsaking long-time players in the hopes of attracting a broader, less-experienced audience.
I hadn't played Deca Sports when it was released, but I figured I owed it a chance before condemning it to the realms of shovelware, so I picked up the Wiimote and tried a few of its 10 sport games. After playing for 20-30 minutes, I found my reactions to be mixed, like those of my peers; the badminton game struck me as a poor man's Wii Tennis, and while kart racing was perfectly competent, it was nothing I hadn't played before in half a dozen other compilations. Figure skating, which surprised me with its strangely enjoyable gameplay, was reasonably engaging, but I could see why my contemporaries might be put off by the game.
Of course, it's hard to imagine that anybody intentionally sets out to make a bad game. With Deca Sports now out there in the marketplace, and the reaction of the press having registered, I thought Hudson might have a little insight to offer us. What drives a game like Deca Sports, and how does one try to keep their game from being perceived as a low-quality gimmick?
We spoke with Hudson's Director of Marketing, Mike Pepe, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
GameCyte: Whenever you put together a sport-game compilation on the Wii, the comparison that's going to be made is to Wii Sports. What is it that differentiates Deca Sports?
Mike Pepe: We set out on Deca Sports, not to compete with Wii Sports, but to complement. Wii Sports comes with five titles, it ships with every Wii Console out there, and it really brings Wii players into the fold; it basically shows them what they can do on the system. What we offer here are ten new sports, completely new sports, with different challenges. You also have teams involved, so, for instance, there are eight different teams inside Deca Sports, each with different attributes, that you can play. So, this is for the more mature players that have "graduated" Wii Sports, and are moving on.
GC: But it still has a very family-friendly look to it. Like, all the characters are very smiley, all the time... very bright colors, that kind of thing.
MP: Definitely, and that's what we wanted. It's very family friendly; it comes unlocked, so you can play any sport, you can play any challenge, you can play any mode right off the bat. You don't have to wait, you don't have to unlock anything, you don't have to go through any story. This is for the people that want to play.
Also, it's awesome in that it's good for the core gamers, because a lot of the time, core gamers think, "Well, what am I going to play with Mom? What am I going to play with Dad? They're not going to get these things, they're not going to get Gears of War. They're not going to get Halo." They need to play something they understand -- they obviously understand Wii Sports, that's one thing they understand. Deca Sports is something that a core gamer and a mom, or a dad, or a grandma, or an aunt, or a niece, or a nephew, will understand. So it's something that really ties everyone together. I think, obviously, the Wii was trying to do this all along; Nintendo's been doing this all along. But this is what we wanted to do with Deca Sports.
GC: Well, on the subject of core gamers and the Wii... one of the negative perceptions that comes up a lot is, a core gamer will look at the software that's available, and say, "Oh, look, another mini-game compilation." How is Deca Sports standing itself up from -- I hate to say it -- a segment of games that are perceived as shovelware?
MP: You know, a lot of the problem is, the shovelware that comes out are things that are full price. So, a core gamer will go out, spend full price on a game, and say, "What the heck did I just spend $50 on? This is ridiculous." All of our casual games, and Hudson as a whole, does multiplayer very well, does casual very well, does family very well, and also, prices very well. So, we put everything out at $29.99. Thirty dollars is usually what our price maximum is going to be. So, if a core gamer wants to just go out and try a game, thirty dollars is an easier buy than a fifty dollar buy. And, like I mentioned before, it's a great tie to the casual audience. If you want to have your family play a game with you, this is the game to try.
GC: All right, I understand that the price is lower, but how does Deca Sports differentiate itself from, say, the fully-featured party game compilations that are out there, like, say, Raving Rabbids, or Mario Party?
MP: We have, I think, five different modes in the game. There's obviously the multiplayer mode, which is really the draw of the game -- being able to play with your friends and your family. But there's single-player modes, four single-player modes. One is the open match, so you can jump right in whenever you want. The second one is tournament, so tournament takes one sport to the top. The third one is Deca League, in which you're going through ten different sports with eight different teams, so it's a decathlon -- and all of these award you trophies.
Finally, there's Deca Challenge. Deca Challenge is like Mario Kart, where they have the timed challenges, and every sport has a Deca Challenge. In badminton, you're trying to hit circles inside the court, because you have different controls... racing, you're trying to get the best time. What this really does is enhance the competitiveness of the game. I have to tell you, when we first got Deca Challenge inside the office, we were really competitive over it. In fact, there are now "WWF" belts with badminton and curling inside the office: One day, you'll go home and you'll have that belt, and the next day, you come in and someone's broken the points. This guy right here (points to Hudson staffer) unfortunately took my badminton belt, so I'm no longer the champion. So, this is a really good way to instill the competitiveness in the game.
GC: You guys were saying just a moment ago [during a presentation earlier in the evening] that this game was your "award winner." What awards are those?
MP: It's good with parenting, so we recently won the NAPPA award. The National Parenting Publications Awards. And that's what we pride ourselves on, that's the highest award we have won. That's something we really hang our hat by, because we've always been a family company. We've always been out there -- all these games you're seeing here are "E." We want everyone to be able to play them; we want kids, we want moms, we want dads, we want everyone to be able to play our games. That award means so much to us, that it really proves that what we're doing is right.
We would like to thank Mr. Pepe for speaking with us.
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November 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am
[...] So, this is for the more mature players that have “graduated” Wii Sports, and are moving on. Full interview here addthis_pub = 'cortjezter'; addthis_hide_embed = false; addthis_options = 'delicious, digg, [...]
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