Sport Island 2

So far, we were convinced that the Sports Island series has a bright future ahead; Hudson Soft has had the great idea of developing a second game which includes ten new sports. This is a very surprising initiative since the first Sports Island had been pathetic. Ironically, this first title was able to sell the two million copies around the world. This reason seems enough for Hudson Soft to embark on a second suicide mission. For an equally disappointing game.

Sports Island 2 demonstrated good will by proposing ten new events not necessarily more interesting than the first opus. We therefore can play hockey ice, kendo, tennis, petanque, speed skating, synchronized swimming, bump skiing, bike racing, darts and, icing on the cake, the captive ball. As you may notice, some of these disciplines look very incongruous in the world of video games. As often in such cases, some sports require that you handle only the Wiimote, while others need the Nunchuk. For the bike racing, we have to take up the remote to the horizontal configuration already found in other titles. If we ask how developers at Hudson Soft have deadlocked on tennis, which cope better with the two appendices of the Wii in the first episode, Kendo is a very anecdotal sport with fighting and a soporific grip bent. Nevertheless, the various exercises in the game do not belong to any interest as it is stupidly waving his arms in front of the TV without worrying about the power and precision of movement. In fact, it is impossible to judge precisely the power of our shot when we are playing petanque and synchronized swimming is merely asking us to wriggle the Wiimote without any meaning. In the other hand, bike racing and speed skating are successful achievement of being both too simple and unplayable.

In this game, the fighting is limited to few rough games in which it is enough to take two shots to be disqualified. If this martial art can be incredibly rich complexity in a dojo, the game has finally retained the idea frantically waving his piece of bamboo to the nose of his opponent. The captive ball is the only time we can smile while playing Sports Island 2, with reminiscent games like those held in the gymnasium of the local primary school, before the noon break. Without a friend with us, the title from Hudson Soft put the player into a deep solo depression, although the League and Tournament modes try to save the game. But whether you are in single player or in multi player, Sports Island 2 is ugly and, indeed, we even do not know if the developers took the time to fix a few pixels from the first strand. Finally, children will no doubt be pleased to learn that it is possible to customize your team, for example by changing the physical appearance of characters to look like the members of his family. After all, there is the Sports Island 2 classroom.

Sports Island 2 has the same flaws as its predecessor, namely anecdotal sport activities, a lack of challenge and a very cheap achievement. Hudson Soft has apparently not learned its lesson, but the company still hopes to scrape a few extra dollars to fill its bank account. In any case, this operation has not worked in Japan where this second opus of the Sports Island series sold fewer copies than the first episode. "For the one who is wrong once, shame on him. For the one who is wrong twice, shame on me." You have been warned.