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I can't think of any reason why there would be a game called "ESPN International Winter Sports 2002" released this year, can you? Yeah, the game is pretty much a timed release to coincide with the events occurring in Salt Lake City, but that does not guarantee that the game is of low quality. I have actually been pleasantly surprised by a few of the events in the game. The general play experience remains as similar as possible between the various events, many of them requiring rapid button mashing to maintain a high speed for example. Of course, there is some diversity, as the game includes 10 different events, ranging from skiing (downhill, slalom, and mogul), to speed skating, even to curling. My experience with games of this nature (dating all the way back to Track and Field for the NES) is that several events are going to be fun, and several of them are going to cause such suffering that you will never desire to play them again. International Winter Sports 2002 is no exception to this rule, as I have no desire whatsoever to do the K90 Ski Jump again. In this event, you hold down the L and R buttons to pick up speed for your jump. As you hit the edge of the ramp, you let go of them, taking off, eventually to press the A button to land. It sounds simple, but I left out a minor detail. As you fly through the air, height lines descend on either side of your skater, and you attempt to keep your balance bars even with the height lines by pressing and releasing L and R. This is damn near impossible. The stupid height lines do not always work together, and I've only successfully landed about five times in about fifty attempts-and even then my score left me in last place (or close to it). On the other hand, there are some events that are excellent. As much as it pains me to say it, Figure Skating is perhaps the most enjoyable event in IWS2002. The gameplay in figure skating mode is pretty much a clone of Dance Dance Revolution. The slight difference comes when your skater prepares do to a jump. A sequence of buttons appears all at once, and if you get through them all in the specified time, your skater will perform a triple… if not, she will wimp out and do a double (or worse). Featuring only a small selection of songs though, I don't forsee anyone devoting hours at a time to this event. Of course, that's not really the point, or there wouldn't be the other nine events. I enjoyed about half of the events, particularly Bobsleighing (not to be confused with Bobsledding), and Curling-it surprised me, but I have a lot of fun playing it. I have come to refer to it as "Ice-Bocce" because it's fairly similar to Bocce ball, a game that I have grown up playing quite a bit of. Considering the diverse play options in IWS2002, it seems like it should really be a winner. However, it simply is not very enjoyable. All of the events, even the most fun of them, get a bit tedious after only a few goes. Many of them are tedious right from the get go. There is a lot of down time between runs too, some of it as part of a cinematic sequence, some of it is spent going through the menus, and a whole lot of it is spent on load times. The game interface is an odd one too, and it strikes me as a bit rushed and incomplete. For example, when you select an athlete, his lips start moving as if he is saying something, but no audio file plays with it. This occurs with each and every athlete every time; a few seconds spent watching your chosen hero talk to you but not hearing what he is saying. The mouth animations are not detailed enough to read the lips either… Few of the animations are as detailed as they should and could be though. The sweepers in curling look a bit ridiculous, especially when they put their foot through one of the stones. Pretty much all of the characters are a bit blocky and lack major detail. The graphics are generally serviceable, but certainly are unpolished-and definitely do not take this system for all it's worth. As an interesting aside while we are discussing the characters… it seems that each country has but one athlete (of each gender) to call their own. This athlete is the chosen participant for all ten events. I have my suspicions that they may in fact be clones as well, as you can see significant resemblances between some of them. The environments are a bit better than the models are-but not much. You can see the ice get a bit worn over the course of a Curling match, and the Bobsleighing course is pretty nice looking. Again though, the detail level is a bit disappointing. The sound is no less disappointing. The announcer says little (thankfully) and yet still manages to repeat himself big time. At the start of practically any event he introduces the athlete and the event, and then says "all eyes will be focused on them today." It's like clockwork. He then comments sparsely over the course of the event, but he seems to comment only at specific times and say specific things. He always seems to say the same thing about the same curve on the Bobsleigh course, and he always seems to say the same thing if you don't stick a landing on the Ski Jump. Adding together the various aspects of the game, there's very little reason to pick this one up. The gameplay is moderately poor, the graphics are unimpressive, and the sound is generally bad. The Gamecube may not be seeing many new releases at the moment, but you shouldn't be so desperate for a game that this one seems like a good idea. OVERALL:5.5 |
