Olympic Summer Games
Reviewed by David Ruocco
Now even couch potatoes can compete at the Atlanta Olympics.
Olympic Summer Games is a return to the gruelling Decathlon-style multi-event game
with 10 button pounding events to play. Your wrists and fingers will never be the same.
The events are the 100m sprint, 110m hurdles, triple jump, pole vault, long jump,
javelin, discus, high jump, archery and shooting.
Up to eight players can compete, and you can represent one of 32 Olympic nations,
including Australia. You can choose to play any selection of the 10 events, or practice
events in which you need to improve your skills.
The athlete’s animation is okay, but the sound is cheesy and quickly grates.
Most events involve pummelling the buttons as fast as you can, and are difficult to
win even in easy mode. Pole vault and high jump are particularly frustrating, and
even my most enthusiastic button bashing can never keep up with even the slowest
computer athlete in the running events.
As with other games of this ilk, playing alone soon becomes tedious due to the
simplistic controls. But with a few friends the game is entertaining for a while.
Olympic Summer Games is a blatant attempt to cash in on Olympic fever, but its
appeal won’t last much longer than the Olympics themselves.