Ice Hockey: You select a team, either all-male, all-female, fast or strong, each with its own pros and cons, then jump onto the ice. It plays very arcadey, with the control stick on the Nunchuck moving you around the ice, and a flick of the Wiimote shooting the puck. Even with my limited abilities, I was able to quickly learn how to score goals against the CPU almost constantly. So that's how you know it's causal!

Dodge Ball: You control another team, but this time, the control stick moves the entire team as a group around the screen at the same time. Flinging the Wiimote throws the ball when you have it in your possession, and you direct your aim with the control stick. You're supposed to be able to catch it, but I wasn't able to accomplish that before getting annoyed.

Darts: Using just the Wiimote, you aim at the screen and then thrust it forward to throw. I don't know why this feels so broken to me, since I remember a darts mini-game in the Wario Ware game being kind of fun to play. I just had a hell of a time aiming this and felt like I had no control over where my darts were actually going. This was the first game where I felt like the Wii Motion Plus could've added much needed accuracy. There are the usual variations in dart games, as well, although the demo only included one.

Petanque: I had no idea what this was until I played it and realized it was bocce ball. We play this at our family reunions! Unfortunately, in videogame form, it's much more difficult to control the balls. You have an on-screen meter to show the force of your toss, and you're allowed practices until you hold B to throw it for real, but I simply couldn't get the hang of it. It either wouldn't register my toss or else it would fly much too far out of bounds. Again, this is where I feel like the Wii Motion Plus might have helped.

In general, the graphics are good, with characters who are cartoony, yet still more realistic than Miis, and smooth animation. Their faces are a little sharp and pointy, for some reason, though. The idea of picking teams makes it feel a little more like a serious sports game, although even that is relatively causal. Although I am told that the final game will include much more detailed team customization. I guess Deca Sports is supposed to straddle the line between a serious sports simulation and the silly fun of Wii Sports. We'll see what the other six games are like, but for now, ice hockey was the only one I found fun to play. On the other hand, Deca Sports 2 does have Wi-Fi multiplayer, which is a pretty major selling point for a Wii game, even if it's reportedly only Tennis and Ice Hockey that can go online.