Also worth mentioning is the achievements feature. Yep, just like all 360
games, these are just the same only without them counting for anything more than
"I did it" points. These achievements were most likely thrown in to justify the
work put into the career. Some are fun and interesting, but even more so than
360 achievements, these have very little use. And as mentioned, there is the
feature to make your own character. It's not the same as Oblivion, but it's
still something to keep things interesting. You basically just get to choose a
race, name, and the rest of the customization is unnecessary, because after all,
the graphics are weak.
The controls are partly a fault of the game because you can only learn what
to do from text screens before the event. At times your success depends solely
on whether or not you can figure out what the various elements of an event
require. This includes figuring out the relation of speed and power to stamina,
the speed at which you perform a motion, and generally just when to do
something. It all results in the definition of trial and error gameplay – you
either do it or not, so rarely will you end up with the fourth or seventh
position, with one through eight competitors in all events. This game really
could have used video tutorials or just screens of the controls in action,
rather than text and the bare minimum.
There are other problems. At times it seems like motions are not read by the
game, or they are made incorrectly. This would be okay since most events allow
three tries, but it can also appear as the game being unresponsive - something
most Wii games suffer from anyway, but it leads to much frustration in a game
like this. Then there are the graphics, which are not terrible, but they are by
no means memorable. Worst of all is the navigation of the menus. It's hard to
just select events and advance through screens or after an event because you
must use the pointer, and your only precise navigation is the d-pad, which is
only used on some screens. Basically, had this game allowed navigation with the
analog stick, this would not be an issue.
And that's all there is to the game. This game is 26 events presented to you
in different ways, but technical issues, lack of depth, and an overall dry
presentation keep this title from being more than average. At times it does very
well to emulate an Olympic experience, but it doesn't go much farther than being
a game you and your buds play a few times and then safely put it away. The game
doesn't feel rewarding enough, and that's a shame since interest in the Beijing
Olympics was very high.
- Gameplay - 70
- Presentation - 50
- Graphics - 55
- Replay value - 60
- Overall - 58.75
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
59%.
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