
You can add spin to the ball by angling your wrist, and by holding down the O button it's possible to reposition your character for a different throwing angle, but that's really all there is to it.

That's because it's incredibly easy to pick up all you have to do is depress the trigger button to pick up your ball, keep it pressed while you make an underarm throw gesture, and then let go of the trigger to release the ball. Like the bowling game in Wii Sports, there's a good chance that bocce might become your go-to game anytime you have folks visiting who aren't entirely comfortable playing video games. The Move hardware is also sensitive enough that by rotating your wrist slightly you can add spin to the balls used in bocce and table tennis, for example.

One thing that all of the events have in common is that they control well the movements that you're required to perform mostly mirror those that you'd make playing these sports for real, and there's no noticeable delay between your movement and your character's. Bocce, on the other hand, offers a number of different courts to play on, while disc golf features 18 different holes, and archery gives you plenty of different things to shoot at. For example, in table tennis the environments change, but the gameplay never does, and the same can be said of the beach volleyball courts and the gladiator duel arenas. The events most likely to end up in the latter camp are those that fail to keep things fresh by offering varied challenges. Though the six events on offer are all of comparable quality, you inevitably end up having one or two favorites and, perhaps, an event or two that you avoid for the most part. Replay value in this single-player mode comes courtesy of a rating system that, based on your performance in each match, awards you one to three stars that count toward unlocking new outfits, equipment, and characters. The AI of your opponents borders on laughable in most of the bronze competitions, but as you gain access to the silver and gold levels, they improve dramatically. And Champions Cup mode-which is where you unlock the aforementioned minigames-pits you against increasingly tough AI opponents in bronze, silver, and gold trophy competitions. Challenge mode is where you find mostly fun minigames such as a tic-tac-toe variant of archery and a gladiator duel in which you're prompted to target specific areas of your enemy.

Free Play mode supports between one and four players depending on the event (though no more than two people ever play simultaneously). Regardless of which sport you choose, Sports Champions affords you the same set of gameplay options.

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