Beat Sports - A bit too light, a bit too breezy

Beat Sports is more beat than sports. These funky interstellar mini-games might resemble volleyball, baseball, and golf, but they're actually about rhythm.

In Net Ball, for example, the ball bounces around to the beat of the cute electronic ditty in the background and you'll have to swing your remote at the right moment to keep the rally going.

You could play batting sim Whacky Bat or golf-alike Hangry Holes by sight and reflexes, but the idea is to get into the groove and strike the ball - with a button press, a swipe, or a swing of the remote - on the beat.

The controls are where Beat Sports falters, though. The touch panel isn't exactly reliable, and while the game is lenient, it still sucks to be slapped with an "early" or "late" pop-up when it was the remote's fault.

Similarly, while it's a lot more fun to play Net Ball by swinging the little black stick about, you'll soon realise that you get much more precision out of just pressing a button.

In general, the games are fun. Simple and slight, sure, and a little repetitive, maybe, but they'll leave you smiling when you grasp that your movements are all part of a catchy song - complete with verses and a chorus.

There's a reasonable amount to do, too, with 27 levels - each with different rewards based on your skill (and ability to rank up a combo) and a tricky pro mode version. You also unlock some avatar fluff like hats and bats, too.

And the game's got a kooky multiplayer mode where you and friends - using iPhones as controllers - tactically choose which alien to serve to, and which power up to use, to scupper your opponents.

If this is supposed to be Apple TV's take on Wii Sports, it doesn't quite hit the mark. The motion control is so simple that it can be replaced with a button press. And the multiplayer isn't so intuitive that you will want to get granny involved.

But like Wii Sports, this is a typical console launch game that handily shows off what the system can do. Just expect it to quickly lose your attention when some more substantial releases roll around.