By Shaun Conlin

Evergeek Media 

The third go for Majesco's news all-ages GoPlay brand, GoPlay City Sports is a collection of six urban-themed games that aren't quite "mini," though they are short-lived, casual affairs each.

While they're all safe and mostly harmless, engaged by wandering a neighborhood of a single city block, meeting up with kids just hanging around waiting for you to play with them, City Sports biggest drawback is not its shallow premise nor homely graphics, but its severely sluggish Wii Remote Control (Wii-mote) control scheme that makes some of it unplayable -- or unenjoyable, at least.

Stickball is a standout, offering a full, nine-inning game in a backlot, with basic pitching, batting and fielding that's appropriately dumbed-down, easy and fun. With the aforementioned Wii-mote lag, however, you need to learn to actuate your swing a beat ahead of time.

Kickball is pretty much the same deal, except you're kicking instead of swinging; the twitch-the-Wii-mote motion is the same, as is the counter-intuitive timing.

The ineptly named Street Hockey, played on a rooftop, is a surprisingly rough-and-tumble affair with lots of big hits and crashing bodies and many a pile-up for a goalie. It's the stuff of "cartoon violence" that the ESRB Rating seems to have missed entirely, though it's still relatively safe for the kiddies -- if they know the realities of hockey, anyway. As a goofy little two-player hockey game, Street Hockey is quite playable; but for just one player, the computer controlled opponents are a little too tough, considering the target age group.

Handball is a promising but ultimately befuddled game that's not unlike Wii Sports Tennis, with the added dimension of setting both players to face the same direction and placed under full user control. Again with the laggy Wii-mote, getting your guy to line up and swat at the ball is easier said than done. Too bad.

The Jump Rope activity is pretty much a disaster. Wii-mote lag is so evident and the music so peppy that timing is nearly impossible.

Lastly, Shootout Soccer has little in common with soccer or shootouts, save for the checkered ball. Basically, it's a lame run through a wimpy obstacle course of road cones, ending with a rock/paper/scissors-like multiple choice ball kick that may or may not net a point. It's just not fun.

All said and done, GoPlay City Sports is certainly serviceable, actually enjoyable in some instances, but it remains priced like there's more to it, which there's not. At $30, you're paying too much for this caliber of content, especially considering the new found sweet spot of $20 for similar "value priced" games like 2K Sports' recent Baseball Blast, or Destineer's new Alien Monster Bowling League.

So as it stands, you're better off waiting for GoPlay City Sports to grace the bargain bins -- and even then, only if you enjoy laggy stickball.

Final Score: 3 (out of five)

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