Big League Sports (Wii)

BIG LEAGUE SPORTS collects various drills associated with six different sports: football, hockey, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, and tennis. Some, like like a soccer drill that involves blocking a series of incoming balls, feel like they have been taken straight from team practice, while others, such as a tennis challenge that turns the opposite end of the court into a giant pinball machine complete with cushions and kickers, are more fanciful. Solo play sees players working through these drills at their leisure while multi-player play involves bracketed tournaments in which competitors vie to earn the most points over a series of games.

One can't help but feel a bit deceived by Big League Sports. While its packaging doesn't explicitly state that the game offers the chance to play six actual sports, the screenshots on the back of the box certainly create that impression. The fact that you only get to try a few drills associated with each sport is undeniably disappointing. Many consumers will likely go pecking through all of the menus again and again, searching for a means by which they can actually play a game of basketball or start up a real soccer match rather than just practice performing slam dunks and juggling balls.

What's more, the rudimentary nature of the two dozen mini-games provided all but ensures that they won't hold your interest for more than a few minutes each. You can try everything the game has to offer in a little over an hour, and few of the games warrant revisiting (many don't even deserve a first visit, for that matter). The long and the short of it is that this is a third-rate sports compilation.