Couch-Sitting Games not so fun after all
Remember that Olympics game for the PS3 I mentioned a while back? Well, Elora snagged a copy from eBay, and we gave it a try. It's...mixed, to say the least. Some parts of it turned the events into a rhythm game, which is clever. The floor exercise, in particular, worked well as a rhythm game, where you have to press the appropriate button as the gymnast's foot comes down. However, there didn't seem to be any difference to the graphics...she didn't stumble if you got it wrong, at least not that I could tell.
The track and swimming, though, is just the same old button-mashing thing that just about every Olympic game has done. Most of the reviews mentioned that button-mashing was involved, but none of them mentioned the speed you're expected to mash at...that is, faster than most humans are capable of. If you have a look at this video, you can see how the playtesters did it. Here's a hint...if you're forced to use the controller in a way that it's not designed to be used (like gluing a pound coin onto it), there may be something wrong with your game design. I was worried that we were going to break the controllers, and we still couldn't do the 100 meters in less than 15 seconds.
The difficulty level was all over the map. I could break world records with ease at archery, or the high jump, but in swimming or track, I couldn't even qualify. I'll give them points for trying; some of the mechanisms were quite creative...they were just insanely difficult. We played it for two days, then re-sold it on eBay. One of these years, somebody will make a fun Olympic video game. This isn't that year.
The track and swimming, though, is just the same old button-mashing thing that just about every Olympic game has done. Most of the reviews mentioned that button-mashing was involved, but none of them mentioned the speed you're expected to mash at...that is, faster than most humans are capable of. If you have a look at this video, you can see how the playtesters did it. Here's a hint...if you're forced to use the controller in a way that it's not designed to be used (like gluing a pound coin onto it), there may be something wrong with your game design. I was worried that we were going to break the controllers, and we still couldn't do the 100 meters in less than 15 seconds.
The difficulty level was all over the map. I could break world records with ease at archery, or the high jump, but in swimming or track, I couldn't even qualify. I'll give them points for trying; some of the mechanisms were quite creative...they were just insanely difficult. We played it for two days, then re-sold it on eBay. One of these years, somebody will make a fun Olympic video game. This isn't that year.