When you first look at the ten games that are going to be included on Hudson's soon to be released Deca Sports, you have to wonder what the heck the developers were thinking. Nintendo's own Wii Sports had such popular events as baseball, tennis, golf, boxing, and bowling, but with Deca Sports you're looking at such under appreciated sports as badminton, archery, figure skating, and even curling. I love watching the sport during the Winter Olympics, but really…curling? Well I was wrong to ever question Hudson, because after getting to play a preview build of the game I'm now all-aboard the bandwagon for Deca Sports.

When Deca Sports is officially released you'll be able to participate in beach volleyball, figure skating, supercross, badminton, kart racing, archery, basketball, snowboarding, soccer, and curling. Though I wish I could report on all the games, sadly the preview build only featured four out of the ten sports. I'm happy to tell you, though, that if the first four games are any indicator, Hudson is going to have a great little game on their hands when the game hits store shelves.

I fired up badminton first since Wii Sports' tennis was my favorite game on that collection when it was released. Having never played the sport before, I was surprised to see that there aren't many similarities between badminton and tennis. In badminton two players take turns hitting a shuttlecock across a net with the object of the game being to get a point by having the shuttlecock land within the other player's area. Instead of swinging the Wii remote like a standard tennis racket, you'll instead use more downward stroke motions of various degrees to either lightly tap the birdie over the net or really put some force behind it and send it flying to the back of the court. Badminton turned out to be a pretty hectic game of offense and defensive juggling, as the game really is a matter of inches. The best way to score in badminton is by smashing the birdie into the other player's side of the court, which you're able to do whenever the other player (AI or human controlled) lobs the birdie too high into the air. As the shuttlecock descends it will briefly light red for a quick second, indicating the most opportune time to hit it, resulting in a super powerful slam that was rarely ever countered by the computer.

Supercross was the next game I fired up off the disc, a game that taught me I should stick to driving cars instead of trying to jump over mounds of dirt. In supercross you'll hold the Wii remote vertically, grasping onto it as if you were holding the handlebars of the bike you are riding. Besides using the 2 button for gas and the 1 (or directional pad) for the brakes, all of the other controls are tied to the tilting of the remote. Controlling bike slides and turns with a tilt of the remote takes some time to get used to, but after a few failed attempts I was soon slipping and burning around corners with ease and blasting my way to first place time after time. Besides knowing how to brake and turn properly, I found it just as equally important to learn how to level out your bike, either tilting your wheels up to properly climb a hill upon landing or either angling it down to get a good boost down a dirt mound.

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