Topic: Flapping My Way Through the New Wii U eShop Game Sportsball

[NWR_Neal]

This novel take on Joust is showing promise, but we won't be putting out our full review until we play five player.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/38943/flapping-my-way-through-the-new-wii-u-eshop-game-sportsball

Some games require a perfect confluence of events to get a review done quickly. For example, I'm already planning a fun-filled day with local Nintendo World Report staffers to try out the local multiplayer options of Smash Bros. on Wii U. So when a local multiplayer-heavy game like Too DX's Sportsball comes out, sometimes we need to delay a review until we can muster up a gaggle of friends to play. Until then, here are some thoughts on this new local multiplayer game.

Sportsball is technically for up to five players. Really, though, it's a four-player local multiplayer game (more on the fifth player in a bit). Players control birds, much like in the arcade game Joust, and they try to stomp each other while also hitting balls into goals to score points. It's frantic and fabulous, backed up by totally awesome music that I can only describe as "1980s sports movie radical." The setting for Sportsball is the kind of futuristic world that old arcade games seemed to hint at. The one where people ride birds in settings such as Neo-New Hampshire or the South Africa International Space Station.

So far, I've only played a bunch of rounds of the two-player mode, but I look forward to try it out with more players. If you have five players, the fifth player can use the GamePad to watch the action and use the microphone to commentate the game. With the replay feature, you can call upon the trash talk or what have you later. I'm not quite sure if that will be that fun or useful of a feature, but I could potentially see the appeal.

Expect a full review from us on Sportsball by early next week. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go rally the troops to play some bodacious future sports with friends.