Since covering Winter Games on Atari A to Z recently, I've been delving into the recent history of official Olympic games on various platforms — primarily the Xbox 360 at this point, but I have a copy of the currently Asia-only Tokyo 2020 Switch game on the way for tomorrow, too.
I'm finding myself reminded how much I enjoy these games, and how they have a definite appeal, particularly in this era of very long games. Each of these Olympic Games… err, games… provides a short, simple, self-contained collection of Things to Do that are fun. And while there's some overlap between versions, each package does offer its own distinct, unique twist on things to keep things interesting.
Currently, I'm playing Vancouver 2010 from Eurocom and Sega, and having a really nice time. They did a great job with the atmosphere on this one; there's some fantastic sound design on some events, with the ski jump being a particular highlight. The range of events is a little limited, but such is the nature of the Winter Olympics to a certain degree.
The game as a whole offers a bit of longevity, though; besides the "Training" mode (which is actually pretty much a "Compete in One Event" mode, given that it has leaderboards) there's the main Olympic mode, plus a Challenge mode that tasks you with taking on the various events with additional conditions to fulfil while you're doing your snowy, icy thing. On some of the skiing events, for example, you have to either avoid or crash into snowmen; some ski jump events have you attempting to land at specific distances; several events have "average speed" challenges to tackle. It's fun. And, despite this being a point of criticism for a lot of reviewers, I actually like the fact there's no long-term "career" mode. It's a pick up and play game. Sit down, play with some skis, snowboards and skates until you've had enough, then go do something else. No commitment, still fun. I like it.
I'm intrigued to check out the Tokyo 2020 game as it sounds like it has a fun character creator and makes some interesting decisions in the name of making it a better video game rather than an accurate simulation of The Olympics That Never Were. More on that in the near future, though — and perhaps some sort of "Olympic Supertest" in the slightly more distant future. I have a few more official Olympic games to collect first though!
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