The uniforms seem to be rendered with solid authenticity, and there are even options to unlock other styles of the uniforms. There are authentic overlays and attractive menus throughout. That said, Sega does take complete advantage of the license privileges that come with being the official video game of the Summer Olympics. A hotter or more epic soundtrack would have been a nice addition. The music is par for the course, not annoying but not something that will have you inspired or bobbing your head, either. The athletes are fictitious, but the commentators don't say their names, which is an ever-so-slight bummer. The commentating is actually not bad, considering there is a limited amount of variance with the athletes. This captures the experience fairly well: Here's a video of Day 1 in the Olympic Games mode. It's practically designed to be something a group of friends or family can enjoy, and not likely to be the mode of play that gets the most rotation on the disc.Įverything you would expect in terms of presentation in a Olympic-style game is here, and a little more. It's the biggest reason I'm writing this review with a towel around my neck. Even though the party events aren't simulations, you will still work up quite a sweat. Only some of the events are available in this mode (16 to be exact). It's called Party Play, and it's not designed to be a realistic simulation of the events. The game also features a motion-controlled mode of play. This said, there is no way to completely remove button-mashing from the genre, but I think Bailey's team has done a good job balancing the timing and accuracy in the control system. Timing and judgement completely replace button-mashing, and it's a cool departure In some of the events that find your virtual athlete stationary, the dynamics change. In these videos, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt were created, but they are not included in the game. Here is some gameplay from those two events:Īs you can see, you can edit your athletes. Going too fast in these events will again stall your athlete. In the swimming events, once you tap the button to get your initial push-off, the actual strokes are done with a rhythmic alternation of the right and left sticks. There are elements like that in other events as well. If you continue to tap feverishly, it will only slow your sprinter down. Most of the events do still require some button-mashing, but true to Bailey's word, none of them will kill your thumbs.įor example, in the 100-meter dash, which is generally the poster event for thumb abuse, you only rapidly tap the buttons to build up speed once you get to top speed, success in the event is about finding the right pace. I've put in a good number of hours with the game, and I can attest that their mission has been accomplished-at least as much as can be reasonably expected. I can tell you this is 100 percent accurate.

London olympic video game