Olympic Games Roundup

With the Winter Olympics and Paralympics having only recently been, I thought that it was only appropriate to take a look at some Olympic video games too. While I don't have any of the latest releases, I did find three titles to review with an Olympic theme. The first is for Dreamcast, and the second two are for Playstation 2. 

Game: Sydney 2000

Console: Sega Dreamcast

Developer: Attention To Detail

Release Date: 31st August 2000

As well as appearing on the Dreamcast, Sydney 2000 was also released for Playstation, with ports to N64 and Game Boy Colour cancelled. The last summer Olympic game released for home consoles had been on Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, so it was the Dreamcast's chance to show off just how far technology had come in the past 4 years. There's a choice of 12 sports from the Olympic programme, and Arcade and Olympic modes which allow for different styles of gameplay. 

Arcade Mode lets players jump right in and compete in all events straight away, earning points for how well they do in the competition. Olympic Mode has players train up through various Virtual Gym exercises and then earn their place on the Olympic team by placing first in a qualifier. This adds a little replayability to the game overall, although the Virtual Gym exercises are essentially the same thing as a lot of the gameplay. Players control their athlete in events with the "power" buttons (A+B) and "action" buttons (X+Y). Most events comprise of tapping A+B in sequence as quickly as possible and hitting X or Y for actions. 

While I'm glad that the running games have been kept to a minimum, it doesn't quite feel like an Olympic video game with only a choice of 100m or 110m Hurdles. Perhaps a relay race or endurance race might have been a good addition. The 100m consists of mashing A+B as fast a possible after the starting pistol, and the hurdles is pretty much the same, save for pressing the action button every now and then to clear the obstacles. It's not particularly easy to time the jumping of hurdles but at least this adds some challenge to the monotony of button mashing. 

For the javelin event the running is exactly the same as before, with a press of the action button to confirm the angle of the throw, before your athlete runs over the foul line being all that's really needed. Winning the event is far too easy and I spent my spare attempts trying to impale myself with the javelin. The hammer event is almost the complete opposite of the javelin. Players build up power by alternately tapping the power buttons and then must judge the moment of release so as not to throw it inside the cage. While still spinning, players set the angle of the throw before release, but it's far too hard to even get one legal throw recorded as there's no indication of when would be a good time to let go of the hammer. 

The triple jump plays fairly well, with the typical build up of speed with the power buttons before judging the correct time to launch a jump, and setting the jump angle for all 3 jumps. This is another event where it's incredibly easy to beat the computer by miles. The high jump event requires mostly timing as players attempt to take off from their jump foot and use their stored power to clear the bar, using the action button to kick their legs over the bar. This event is particularly difficult as the computer players regularly break the world record to win the event.

The skeet shooting is a nice change up from the athletics events, requiring players only to aim and pull the trigger when the target is in sight. This is another event where the computer will freely break the "world record" in order to win. The 100m freestyle swimming sees a return to form for the "power" button mashing style of events. It's easy to win and requires nothing more than fairly fast tapping to beat. 

The final four events begin with possibly the most fun of all 12 events in the game; the 10m Diving. Players complete 5 different dives, with button markers displaying when they need to press to perform certain aspects of each dive. There's choices of difficulty which affect the overall score multiplier and a mark out of 10 awarded to each dive. The only downside is the event's relative ease. The concept for the Weightlifting event works well; pressing the power buttons alternately until a certain marker is reached, at which point the athlete moves into the next phase of the lift. 

The Sprint cycling is about as close to an endurance race as the game comes, with an energy preservation meter and some tactical thinking needed to win the race. It's not too hard though, and once you know the correct strategy there's really nothing to it. The final event on the game is the Kayak K1 Slalom which features almost impossible controls that make doing anything that the event asks of you difficult. Turning to get through the water gates is hard and ones which require you to go backwards through them are too much of a challenge. 

Graphically the game is pretty average; it looks better than the Playstation version but not by too much. It's a big improvement from previous Olympic games, however. The commentary included in Athens 2000 is fairly standard and only really of note when it interrupts gameplay by announcing something before it even happens (as in the Skeet Shooting event) or when it's being rude about your performance, particularly in the harder events. 

Overall there's a decent variety of Olympic events included in this game and it's not all button mashing or badly thought out controls. Some events such as the Kayak and Hammer Throw feel as if they could have had better controls, and the AI could have been improved on the whole, but as the first properly 3D offical Olympics game it doesn't do a bad job. The training modes add some depth to the experience as a whole but there's not a lot of replayability as its similar to the main game.

Rating: 57/100

Grade: D

Game: Athens 2004
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Eurocom
Release Date: 14th July 2004

By the time Athens 2004 was released, the Dreamcast had been discontinued and so the game of the next Olympic cycle was console exclusive to the PS2. Featuring more sports and disciplines than the last official Olympics game and a new developer there's still just as much button mashing, but the question is whether it's fun button mashing. From the start screen, you're given the choice of competing in Arcade or Competition modes; Arcade mode has a practice and single event feature, as well as party mode for multiplayer games, but other than this the only difference seems to be that Olympic and World records are not featured.

In Competition mode players can choose to compete in a single event, decathlon, heptathlon, all events of a particular kind or all events in the Olympic program. There's also the option to create a custom program of up to 10 events which is good for just playing your favourites. As the events in some disciplines are similar, I'll be looking at them in groups.

With 6 of the game's 25 events being different variations of running, the need for a fun but solid control system for these events is high. The 100m, 200m, and 400m races all feature the classic "press 2 buttons alternately" control system, with L1 used for quick starts and ducking at the finish. While this can get tiring for the 400m, it works decently in the two shorter races and the amount of challenge seems to be pretty spot on. For the 110m Hurdles however, things get considerably more difficult as the game requires you to continue to run whilst pressing L1 to get over the hurdles, and it's not exactly intuitive as to when you need to jump either.

800m and 1500m races employ a very different style of racing. While I'm glad that there's no need to button mash for 3-4 minutes, there's a lot less to do than I'd like. Players tilt the right analog stick to set their runner's speed; the faster they go, the quicker they lose stamina (although there's a sweet spot which will allow you to go a decent pace without losing any stamina). On the final lap, players are given a speed boost equal to the amount of stamina they have left, which can be used at any time on the final lap. If you have the right technique these races are far too easy to win, but if you don't you'll finish a frustrating last place.

For the 7 Field events of the game there are various control schemes; the Long Jump, Triple Jump and Pole Vault all use similar "run, then press L1" ideas where the result is a combination of how well you can button mash and then time your jump. The Pole Vault idea is probably the most successful as players must clear a certain height on the chart, as well as stop the marker within the area to do a valid jump. For the High Jump event players are in control of each step their athlete takes as well as the jump and leg flick at the end. Timing the run up can difficult but once mastered, the event can be fairly enjoyable, if a little hard on higher jumps.

As for the throwing events, three different control schemes are employed; for the discus the player has to make fast circular motions with the analog stick (which is difficult) before hitting L1 to choose the throwing angle. For the shot put event, the player sets a power meter and then an angle to determine how far the throw is. The angle meter goes up very quickly and is difficult to control, as well as there being a red zone in the power meter which indicates a foul. The javelin event features the same "run, then press L1" idea as the jumping events, however L1 is pressed to estimate the timing of the throw. It's difficult to get anywhere near other competitors in this event and often your athlete seems to take an extra hop over the foul line for fun.

The swimming events in the game control similarly to the running, with the addition of a breathing meter which requires players to press L1 occasionally. While there are 4 swimming events featured, they're all very similar and none are particularly impressive. Obviously it's difficult to simulate swimming with controller, but I'd say that a rhythm based idea may have been better and easier to win with.

The gymnastic events feature many different control schemes, the most interesting of which is lifted straight from Dance Dance revolution games and used for the Women's Floor Excercises. I'm on the fence as to whether this is innovation or plagiarism. The Men's floor Excercises in contrast, feature a rhythm based idea with 2 components; charging your concentration by tapping X and O alternately (which makes the rhythm hitzones bigger) followed by tapping the X button at the correct point, and a part which moves around the 4 face buttons in order.

In the Men's Rings the analog sticks control the held positions with tapping of R1 and L1 to steady the athlete inbetween holds. To dismount there's a button combo which must be executed within a certain time limit. For the Vault event the player must build up speed to get air by pressing X and O alternately before pulling off a button combo within the time they have before hitting the floor. The harder routines don't show the combo you're required to pull off before you're in the air for added difficulty. All in all, the gymnastics events have a mixed standard of enjoyability with the highest being a blatant copy of another game's core dynamic.

The final four events are sort of miscellaneous as far as disciplines go. By far the worst event in the entire game is Showjumping; if your horse's speed is even slightly wrong going into a jump it'll refuse to even try, and timing the jumps right when your speed is correct is hard anyway. The commentator is condescending and after about 5 penalties, you get disqualified. I've not managed to complete a single round of this event, much as I've tried. Weightlifting requires more alternate pressing of X and O to get to different stages of the clean and jerk, but it's hard to do at the heaviest weights and the computer always seems to be able to outlift you.

Archery features a fun aim-based control scheme where players must judge how much the wind will affect their shot, using the left analog stick to aim before shooting an arrow. Matches are one-on-one, so there's a closer competitive element also. The final event is Men's Skeet Shooting which allows players to aim along the path the clay pigeon will take and time their shot to hit the targets. I found it pretty difficult to judge and hit anything in this event, but I wasn't entirely sure whether it was the game or me that was at fault.

Graphically the game looks pretty good at times, although the athlete models aren't as realistic as they could be. While the locations and props look nice, muscles and skin tones tend to detract from the realism that they're trying to achieve. Commentary is simple and tends to repeat a lot if you play the same event multiple times, but definitely adds to the feel of the game as an official Olympic product.

Overall as a collection of sporting minigames with different controls and ideas, Athens 2004 is hit and miss. Games like swimming and short distance running tend to rely overly on alternate button mashing, but there are good ideas in events such as the long jump, shot put and gymnastics. While these sort of games have a fairly niche market and short shelf life, as an Olympic game, it succeeds in offering a large variety of events to compete in but has little replayability beyond trying to win them all.

Rating: 66/100
Grade: C

Game: Torino 2006
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: 2K Sports
Release Date: 24th January 2006

Official Winter Olympics video games date back to at least 1994, but the only one I currently own is that of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Featuring 15 different disciplines of winter sports, the game looks promising initially. There's not a huge amount of game modes however, with the option to compete in all events, 9 specific events, a single event or to choose your own program of events. There's no practice setting or bonus features to the game at all.

Again I'll be looking at the events in groups of similar sports so as not to repeat myself. The first four events are under the Alpine Skiiing discipline; Downhill and Super-G are both fairly similar race skiing events with gates to pass through and a simple control scheme which uses the left analog stick to steer. Aside from getting a good start by pressing the meter at the correct time at the top of the hill, the player's time depends on how well they navigate the course and its various gates.

The Slalom and Giant Slalom skiing events focus more on skill than speed, with much tighter turns between their gates. Personally I found it hard to get the hang of either event despite the decent control scheme. The AI players seem to set fairly perfect run times and it's difficult not to miss any gates. Considering the fact that these 4 events make up over 1/5 of the entire game it seems like there should have been more variation between them.

Two more skiing events are next in the program and once again they're extremely similar. Both Normal Hill and Large Hill ski jumping use the same controls and are essentially the same event. Players must balance their skiier down the inital hill before pressing X to jump. Upon taking off the skiier must once again be balanced in the air before pressing X to land. While the controls are simple, the player's score seems almost random upon landing and as gameplay isn't much fun, there's no incentive to try and beat the computer.

Cross Country skiiing is an endurance event which relies on the player's conservation of stamina and ability to press down the X button varying amounts to follow an effort meter. While it's good to see a little bit of strategy in the game, only one strategy can really win medals in the event. The Nordic combined event features a ski jump followed by a cross country race, with a headstart for those who place well in the ski jump. While this is obviously a real Olympic event, it adds nothing to the game as it's just two of the previous events combined.

The ninth and final skiing event is the Biathlon which combines Cross Country Skiing with Shooting. While this is obviously a real Olympic event, and the shooting is a nice change up from the monotony of the ski sections, this event adds no real value to the gameplay of the game as a whole since the same tactics and strategy can be used from other Cross Country skiing events.

There are three Speed Skating disciplines, 500m, 1000m and 1500m. These use the X and O buttons alternately in a stready rhythm to achieve the maximum speed. The only real difference between all 3 events is the length of the races. While I'm glad that the developers didn't choose the all too common control scheme of mashing the X and O buttons, the longer races can get pretty boring.

Finally (and the most fun of all) come the Bobsleigh and Luge events. Although the choice between 4 Man Bobsleigh, Women's Bobsleigh and Luge doesn't seem to make much difference to the gameplay, the first person viewpoint and fast paced dynamic featured in all 3 events combines well with the control options to steer whichever vehicle you chose.

Graphically the game can be impressive at times, and it's the best looking game of the ones in this review but some textures and other details could definitely be better. The commentary featured in the game is strange for a couple of reasons. Firstly it's not always entirely accurate; on a good run the commentators might remark on how far you are behind, even though you're headed for a gold medal, and secondly all the commentators seem to do is agree with eachother rather than have an interesting conversation about the sport you're currently partaking in.

Overall Torino 2006 feels like a thinly disguised set of the same sports attempting to be passed off a different events. In truth there's only 5 truly different winter sports experiences to be had, which is a shame when things like Curling or Ice Hockey could have so easily been included instead of longer versions of sports already in the game. The sports that are featured are mostly bearable and even almost fun in places, but it's not enough to save the game from being poor.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D