Customer Reviews
Beijing Olympics - If only i was as good as team GB!! - By: M. Royce, 18 Sep 2008 
I brought this game expecting a classic button mashing sports fest. The game as a whole has some very good aspects but i find the control system to be a little too complex. The idea of using the control sticks instead of the buttons is a nice idea but i found too often that this was slower than button mashing & became very irritating to the hands after only a short time playing. Also the character stats aspect of the game becomes very frustrating as the fatigue part of the game plays a big partin future success & you cannot skip events to speed up progress & have to participate before quitting the event to keep this fatigue down. The athletein each event is often different to thatin other events so i didn't see why fatigue would come in.
World Recordsin certain events such as the middle distance events are practically impossible to break as you are so relient on beingin close proximity to your challengers for stamina that you cannot push on with the record because they do not attempt to catch you.
In the whole the solo playing mode does not grip you the way i'd hoped & its more relient on the mulitplaying with friends than going for gold yourself. I hope future releasesin this genre will learn from the goods & bads of this game but this addition just seems to be TOO different without any feedback from players before release.
Buy this title when its cheap & only as a party game.
If you love the olympics this is for you! - By: S. Mcghee, 17 Sep 2008 
If you love the olympics which i do this is for you i play this non stop & i love the challenge of winning the medals. the graphics are great but the only thing i dislike of the game is the athletes are'nt real so like theres no micheal phelpsin swimming or an ussain bolt its just random characters but the gameplay just makes me forget about it.
Shallow fun - By: Lancebastion, 09 Sep 2008 This is a classic old school athletics game. In essence it's not really changed since the old Daily Thompson game on the Spectrum. There's a whole lot of waggling & button mashing.
There's nearly 40 events, but a lot of them are very similar. The more unique ones (table tennis) are have been done very quickly & somewhat poorly. The highlights being the sprint running.
THere's an amount of randomness & lack of skillin many events. THe 1500m you can be far behind up to the last lap & still easily win. There's little strategy.
This does have online for up to 8 players, which is where it becomes more fun. This is the kind of game that comes into its ownin large groups, with a couple of beers.
I wouldn't suggest buying this if you like epic, play alone games. If you're a casual gamer, you'll have fun. Wait for the bargain bins.
Back to 1990 - By: R. Huisman, 04 Sep 2008 
Really do not enjoy this dinosaur game. No intuitive interface, & the actual sports are no fun either. Game does not offer you a lot of possibilities, can not even change my name. Also, after each event you have an annoying 4 seconds wait to see where your score would bein the worldwide leadbord. If you like pressing two buttons after each other like a madman, than this would be a game for you.
Falls at the final hurdle! - By: MagyarMatt, 28 Aug 2008 
Ok first off the events are great with a nice variety of controls. And the events will leave you as sweaty as the athletes as you bash those buttons. The only poor event for me is Judo which despite many attempts I just can't get to work.
Where this game falls down however isin it's lack of choice of countries & on-line play. I play other games on-line but if I try this with 8 people & 100m run the lag is dreadful & the connection usually drops. I think it can't handle all the rapid button imputs. So your going to need a very high speed internet connection for this to work. Mine does ok with 4 people. Also some of the events which run as knockout like table tennis & archery do not run concurrently so you have to sit there for ages as everyone else plays out their games. How the developers thought that was a good idea is beyond me.
Single player mode features training with the nice feature of being able to compare against your friends personal bests. Of course you can competein the olympics but it has the hugely annoying feature of you needing to qualifyin so many events to get to the next day or you have to do the whole day all over again including events that you already qualified in, very frustrating.
This game is best played with a few friends & overall is worth getting. Be prepared for some serious finger & arm ache though!!
