We Are All Sports Champions in Our Household

by Lori Cunningham (@wellconnectdmom)

Editor’s Note: We are giving away a $400 Entertainment Networking Bundle from Western Digital. See how to WIN at the end of the article, How to Stream Online Movies and Internet Content on Your non-Smart TV.

Also, was at the Consumer Electronics Show all week and have some fun things to share with you next week. Lots of cool tech products out there!

As a PlayStation Family Ambassador, I often have the opportunity to try out the latest games. There are two I’m pretty excited to share with you. The first is Sports Champions 2, which I will tell you about in this article. The second is Wonderbook: Book of Spells, which transforms your family room into a castle where you learn actual Harry Potter spells! I believe the Wonderbook: Book of Spells is a must have gift for Harry Potter fans.

What’s Your Sport?

With Winter coming, going outside to play your favorite sport will be colder for us Californian,s or not at all possible for those dealing with the winter snow. Sports Champions 2 gives you the opportunity to play sports in the comfort of your own home, while allowing you to play competitively.

Sports Champions 2 encompasses 6 different sports:

Bowling
Boxing
Tennis
Golf
Skiing
Archery

Want more sports? Sports Champions, the first version and the most popular Move game to date, includes Disc Golf, Gladiator Duel, Beach Volleyball, Archery, Table Tennis and Bocce. Let’s look more closely at each of the six sports in Sports Champions 2…

Skiing

Skiing is one of our favorite video game sports. We played the skiing game over and over again. My daughter is a whiz at skiing, she gets the fastest time every time. My kids have never skii’d the slopes, but when the opportunity comes, they will be a lot better off than when I first hit the slopes. We play the Party Play activity a lot which means we are constantly rotating through a bunch of different games in a short period of time. Two play against each other than the winner plays the next person and so on until there is a clear winner. Skiing tends to wear you out because you need to row your arms back and forth to gain speed and momentum. A good workout.

Golf

When playing golf, only one person can be at the screen at a time. An indicator on the screen helps you to see how powerful your stroke will be. You have the chance to get the power just right before striking your ball. The scenery in the background is pretty and when you’re playing the game, you really do feel as if you’re “in the game.” This is my husband’s favorite sport because he usually wins. You are able to change clubs and angle your shot through the Move controller.

Bowling

Besides playing a fun game of bowling, Sports Champions 2 Bowling is really cool because of the backgrounds. Sometimes you’re playing near a huge fish tank with fish swimming in the background behind the pins and sometimes you are bowling outside, near the ski slopes! There’s a bridge walkway that skiers stand on to watch you bowl! When you’re bowling it feels very realistic. My 7-year-old, my husband, and I had no trouble bowling. My 9-year-old daughter on the other hand got really frustrated because most of the time she couldn’t get the ball to drop. Funny enough though, once she finally did get the ball to drop and roll, she earned a strike! There were many bittersweet moments for my daughter. With practice, I think she’ll be able to drop the ball just fine.

Boxing

My son really loves this game, it’s always one of his favorites. It’s a great way to get out your aggression. You make a lot of punches towards your opponent, although your use of the buttons on your controller is really more important. For the rest of us, it was our least favorite sport, mostly due to the reliance on the buttons to block, uppercut right, uppercut left, etc. There are too many buttons and you get confused.

Tennis

Tennis is a lot of fun and pretty realistic. You have to have a quick hand because sometimes your opponent can serve the ball at over 90 mph. It’s really fun to see how hard you can really serve that ball. When it goes that fast you see a fiery streak that goes with the ball. Thanks to this game, my kids understand the concept of scoring for tennis, which can be rather confusing. I also like how it prepares them for the sport, so when we play during the Summer months, they understand it’s more than just hitting a ball back and forth.

Archery

Archery is an improved game from the original Sport Champions. It works better and my kids now are able to get their arrows and shoot with better accuracy. The scenery and fun objects to shoot at really make this game engaging. The game happens fast, which makes it more difficult for younger kids, but with practice, they’ll catch on. You actually need to move your arm (holding the Move controller) back behind you as if grabbing a quill (arrow) then you wait until a circle appears and move your Move controller/bow & arrow, until you have it on your target. It’s a lot of fun but goes really fast!

PlayStation Move and Controllers

To Play Sports Champions 2, you need to purchase the PlayStation Move camera and at least one Move controller. With Sports Champions 2, you can use two controllers, one in each hand, which makes Skiing more realistic, or just use one controller. Another new feature is that when you play the Party mode, you don’t have to use the same controller each time when you’re passing the Move controller to the next player up. This is a handy feature and takes the guess-work out of figuring out which controller the next person up should take.

Modes of Play

Cup Play – for single players only. Cup Play has three main activities – Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Players must earn stars to fulfill each cup and achieve the gold.

Free Play – up to four people can play any sport they choose.

Party Play – this is our family’s favorite. Players can choose a short, medium, or long amount of play and dependent upon the amount of time chosen, up to four players will play through a series of sports.

Sports Champions 2 sells for $29.99 plus free Super Saver shipping at Amazon.com.

A Mom’s Perspective

Sports Champions 2 if a fun way to get your kids off the couch and sneak in some exercise. My whole family was very winded after the skiing and boxing. In my day, you sat on a couch and played your video games. Just like we moms sneak veggies into our family’s meals, Sports Champions 2 is sneaking in exercise into our game play. I love it!

Sports Champions 2 is a fun family game. It’s hard to just sit on the couch and watch, everyone wants to get involved. The game is rated E 10+ due to its mild violence, mostly stemming from the boxing game. Game ratings are a great guide to help you select the best video games for your family. Be sure to read Know the Ratings on Your Kids’ Video Games, to find out more.

* I was given a copy of the Sports Champions 2 PS3 video game as an ambassador of their PlayStation Family.

We Are All Sports Champions in Our Household

What’s Your Sport?

Modes of Play

A Mom’s Perspective

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