Celebrity Sports Showdown Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 4th February 2009

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It's showdown time.

Celebrity Sports Showdown Details:

Goto Celebrity Sports Showdown Game Page

	Mini-game Compilation
	Nintendo Wii
	EA Canada
	EA Sports FreeStyle

Out Now

1-4

Pick up and play party games, seem to dominate the Wii. So with such a wide selection available you would think games companies would put extra effort into theirs to make it stand out. However, most of these games are stuck in mediocrity and EA’s Celebrity Sports Showdown is another one to the already long list.

With the title Celebrity Sports Showdown you would expect to be able to recognise some of the names included on the roster and there are a few you will. Such as Nelly Furtado, Avril Lavigne, Fergie, Leann Rimes and Sugar Ray Leonard. Other then that I have no idea who the rest of the included celebrities are!

The game is made up of twelve mini-games, Inner Tubing which sees you and three competitors being pulled by a boat. The objectives of this game is to score points by collecting stars and try and stop the other players from doing so by slamming them with you inner tube. Slalom Showdown is a very simple but fairly enjoyable downhill ski racing game. Air Racers has you racing in planes through canyons, in this game you have to pass through checkpoints in order to get a speed boost whilst avoiding mines and missiles. Rapid Fire Archery is an enjoyable game and has you competing against other players to shoot out the most targets scoring points in the process. Hurdle Derby is a horse racing game in which you race around a course, jumping over fences. Joust Duel will be familiar to anyone who has ever watched Gladiators on TV and is fairly fun with two players. Cliff Hangers is a rock climbing game in which teams race to the top of a cliff avoiding falling obstacles and so on.

Beach Volleyball, Wild Water Canoeing, Smash Badminton, Arena Dodgeball and Curling are the remaining uninspired games and are exactly what you would expect, with Curling being the weakest mini game in Celebrity Sports Showdown. Due to its pace and how long it takes to complete one round of it, let alone the full game.

The games controls are very basic and well implemented, there are some advanced controls to utilise, such as using power-ups but these seem to have been added on as an after thought as you will hardly ever be required to use them. This makes the game highly accessible, which is very important in these pick-up and play party games.

The game supports up to four players who can compete in single events or tournament play that can be customised to your choosing. Playing the game with friends will get you the most out of the title as solo play can be a little boring to say the least.

Graphics wise the game is pretty bad, characters are nothing short of awful with the cartoon style celebrity likenesses barely resembling their real world counter parts. Game environments are bland and lacklustre, whilst the games audio is largely absent and uninspiring at best.

Celebrity Sports Showdown isn’t a bad game as far as mini-game compilations go, but like many games in the genre it has the same short coming in that it’s uninspiring , lacks innovation which complimented by poor presentation. If having friends around and playing on the Wii is your thing then it might be worth a look, however if you’re looking for an engaging single player experience then like so many Wii party games, give this one a miss.