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Platform: Playstation
2 Support AE! Buy Games Here:
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Athens 2004Score: 5.6 / 10
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Pros: -
Dance Mat support -
Kinda fun with a bunch of people
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Cons: - A vast majority of the game is lame button mashing and simplistic reflex tests - No character customization
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"...these Olympics games are always just a product of committee thinking without any real effort going into the actual game, and this holds true for Athens 2004."
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Chances are, you're not participating in the Olympics over
in Athens. For years now, game publishers have felt your pain, and have
made firmly sure that you can participate vicariously through your video
game system. And thus, it's a tragedy that these games still haven't
evolved beyond Track & Field-style button mashing from two decades
ago. And if you're too young to remember Track & Field? Think of
those minigames in Dead to Rights and Star Fox Adventures that no one
liked and you'll get a good idea of the entirety of Athens 2004.
The standard track and field events involve pounding the X
and O buttons until you either get tired or bored. In the hurdles event,
you'll occasionally press the L1 button to jump over stuff. In the
longer track and field events, you simply moderate your speed with the
analog stick. The swimming events are pretty much the same, except you
need to press L1 occasionally to breathe. Other events, such as the long
jump, pole vault javelin, and weight lifting, require button mashing
followed by stopping the power bar at a certain point.
I hope you enjoyed reading that previous paragraph, because
that's actually more fun than playing the game. For all intents and
purposes, these are just variations on the same tedious theme. And for
some reason, the instructional videos for these games are only
accessible in the practice menu, so you'll need to wade through some
rather confusing text if you want to find out how to play them in-game. |
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At least some of the events aren't completely terrible. Both
the Rings and Archery games require steady positioning of the analog
stick, and the Skeet Shooting is a decent test of reflexes. Far and away
the most interesting the Floor Exercises Women tournament, which is
actually Dance Dance Revolution in Olympic clothing. I am not even
kidding. There's only one song and you get a gymnast in the background,
but the arrows, timing and font are almost exactly the same.
Which brings us to Athens 2004's only redeeming quality – the dance mat support. Not only |
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can you use this for the Floor Exercises
game, but several other events, such as the track and vault events, are
compatible as well. This way, you can relive your memories of the Power
Pad and World Class Track Meet on the NES, which is good for an athletic
workout. Unfortunately, you're going to need a somewhat decent mat if
you want to play these games, as the cheap mats slip far too much to
really be effective. But get several highly caffienated people together,
and all of a sudden an otherwise worthless game becomes some heavily
amusing party entertainment.
The presentation is pretty bare bones, with a clean menu
populated with those charmingly weird mascots. Graphically, the
background graphics are reasonably good, although the character models
look a bit off, especially in the faces. While there are plenty of
characters from all around the globe, a character customization option
would have been nice. Most of the game is silent except for the
orchestrated title theme, some random generic techno, and the blather of
some inane British sports commentators.
So, these Olympics games are always just a product of
committee thinking without any real effort going into the actual game,
and this holds true for Athens 2004. But at least the dance mat support
lends enough to the experience to make it something different and
worthwhile -- at least for a rent -- and turns it into a fine workout too.
If you don't own a mat, it's not worth it to subject your poor PS2
controllers to the punishment known as Athens 2004.
- Kurt Kalata (August 7, 2004) Search for Related Topics: ...More Playstation 2 Game Reviews... |
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