Sydney Olympics 2000: "False Start!"

Anyone remember that old school arcade game Track & Field? If not, go download MAME and get reacquainted. Anyway, the premise behind the game was that you were an Olympian and you were competing in different events, usually ones that invovled a lot of running. You had two "run" buttons you were supposed to hit as fast as you could, alternating between the two, and when necessary, you hit the "action" button, which would throw, jump, everything that wasn't "run" basically.

Well, enter 2000, and Eidos is trying to get back on the scene, releasing the requisite Olympics games, entitled Sydney 2000. If you ever owned a Commadore-64, a lot of this game is going to seem awfully familiar, because Sydney 2000 is basically Summer Games I & II combined with Track & Field.

I'm going to break this game down into each event, and I'll give you a basic overall quality review to start it all off.

Overall Game

The graphics for this game are bad. Every character is a flat-shaded 3D model who wears a really stupid expression on their face. Depending on the event you're in, you'll look different. For instance, the model for the high jump is a slender, weird-looking female with a sharp, pointy ass. The model for the weightlifter is a bulky male who's arms and legs don't look like they're attached right. The crowd is a 2D texture "propped-up" pop-up book style to look 3D. You'll notice clipping errors and other general graphical no-no's all throughout the game.

Sound is ok, but is ruined as many sports games are, by the really, really stupid announcers. Eidos recruited NBC analyst and former US high jumper Dwight Stone, and some other guy. They say nothing insightful, and are really just there to restate the obvious, and tell you when you set a new world record. The music isn't bad, but the bad commentary is what you're going to walk away from the game remembering.

Control is very easy. However, the stock Dreamcast controller is definitely not built for this game. Stng & I found that it was best to work in a 2-man team, one holding down the controller, and hitting the action button, and one mashing the run buttons. If you don't do it that way, you have a very hard time finding a position that lets you hit the buttons without losing control of the joystick. Alternately, Stan tried using the Samba de Amigo maracas for the running events, but we couldn't figure out what the X and Y buttons were mapped to on the maracas, so all he could do was run, which he did very fast, mind you.

There are two basic modes, Arcade and Olympic. Olympic is different in that, it requires you to "train" for the Olympics by basically running the event in a simulator. It looks really stupid and isn't very fun since it's basically exactly the same thing, with different graphics. I'm not going to spend any time on it, since I figure you won't either.

Well, on to the individual events!

100m Dash

According to the Eidos website, this is the first event they made, and then used it as a template for all the other ones. No surprise there...it's pretty evident.

Anyway, pretty straightforward...don't false start and mash buttons until you're home free. Nothing really exciting here.

110m Hurdles

This one's a bit tricky...mash the buttons and then hit the action button to hurdle. Do it right and you'll land in stride. Do it wrong, and you'll smack into the hurdles. (No, you can't win just by mashing the run buttons really quick.)

I guess this one is done ok, too...can't really complain, nothing much to see.

Hammer Throw

Spin your guy in a circle and let that puppy fly. I have yet to get a successful toss out of this blasted event because the readouts are so damn confusing. After a lot of trial and error, here is what I think is going on. There is a blue/green/red bar. This had nothing to do with your throw angle or timing, it's just when you're about to fall out of the circle and thereby fault. Press the action button for angle and let go to let go of the hammer. Once again, the characters look really dippy.

Javelin

No, you don't aim for the birdie on this level. Mash the run buttons and hit the action button to determine the throw angle. The closer to 45 degrees, the better.

This event is once again a staple...once again, no innovation, graphics uninspiring. Apparently, being different is something Eidos did away with long, long ago.

High Jump

This was the toughest event for me in Track and Field. It wasn't as hard in Summer Games II, and Eidos has basically copied that formula and made it 3D. Mash the run buttons, and hold the action button to jump and hang. Let go to kick your legs up.

You'll notice the jaggedness of your model a lot in this event, not to mention the fact that you clip through the mat after you land and do your excessively long retarded celebration.

Triple Jump

One again, another event in a form basically the same as it was in 1988. Run up and then the step before you want to jump hit the action button. if you press it at the line, you'll fault. As the skip and the jump parts of the triple come up, an angle thing will automatically pop up. Hit the action button near 45 degrees to get more distance. I thought I had to bring up the angle things by tapping the button, so I'd end up with jumps of 0-8 degrees.

The way the sand pit look after you land in it looks exactly the same as the high jump mat looks after you land in it, except a different color. I have to say this is one of the coolest looking events on the replay. They did the camera angle well, and you can see the judge in the background signal fault or a good jump.

Freestyle Swimming

100m dash in the pool.

Olympic Sprint Cycling

This is the equivalent of a final breakaway in the Tour de France, but in this version, you're got to conserve energy to make the final push for the finish line. This event is pretty damn lame.

Skeet Shooting

This is probably the lamest event of the bunch. It's set up like a first person shooter, but there's no option to invert your cursor. It ends up being like that part in Final Fantasy 7, the Speed Coaster in Golden Saucer. You have to unlearn all the cursor moving, and then relearn the non-inverted way. What ends up most of the the time is you'll pull up when you mean to move down, and then you try to overcompensate...by pulling up harder...You end up staring at the sun a lot.

Weightlifting

This is utterly lame. Mash the buttons and hit the action button twice. This is an endurance thing. You're going to be mashing the buttons fast for a long time. The bar bends under the weight of the load, making this event look like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

10m Diving

I have no idea what you're supposed to do in this event. I mashed all the buttons and moved every direction on both controller sticks, and I never got my diver to do anything at all. A close runner-up to Skeet Shooting for lamest event.

Kayak

Pretty much like the Summer Games II kayak event. Row using the buttons. Avoid getting penalized by going through all the gates, and try and get a fast time. The lame announcing was most evident here, as my roommate Stan tried rowing downstream but ended up paddling backwards in the start area, at which point Dwight Stone said, "He's coming up to an extremely tough section of the river now." Also, you'd go through a gate and the announcer would say "Through Gate 14...Next up is Gate 15." Whoa. The sad thing is, this is probably the extent of commentary you're going to get out of the NBC guys anyway.

All in all, this one is a waste. Track & Field was much more fun, and so was Summer Games II. Eidos didn't put very much effort into this at all, and that's a damn shame. At least it isn't the NBC Olympics game. If it was, there'd be 12 different events of gymnastics, and everything would happen 24 hours after you hit the buttons.