News Post

Tiny Toons, the Olympics, and a Lack of Evolution

01:23 PM - January 30, 2010 by RaychelSnr

It is amazing, that in the 27 years since Konami debuted Track and Field in the arcades, Olympic-themed video games have not advanced a single step beyond Konami’s original formula of mashing buttons until your fingers bleed.

Only Sonic and Mario have come close in recent years, but not even gaming's most-celebrated duo can compete with one of Konami's least-celebrated titles -- the one that, to this day, continues to surpass the efforts of all other Olympic games -- thus making it a fine recipient of the title "greatest video game Olympian.”

Read More - Tiny Toons, the Olympics, and a Lack of Evolution

Member Comments

# 1 Nashvillain @ 02/23/10 06:39 PM

One of the best games I ever bought; it really is tantamount to the likes of Chrono Trigger and FF2 in replay value. The creativity in some of the games (e.g. Ice Cream toss, chicken dash, Birdman competition, log cutting, hammar bash) has never been repeated (not that I play games like most readers here). Interesting dispute: was the SEGA Genesis counterpart TT:All Stars a superior game? I only had SNES, so side with this cartiridge, but I remember some hilarious settings in the Genesis game, perhaps a literal "wacky mode."

# 2 Cod @ 02/25/10 10:18 PM

The history of Olympic video games is horrid and the future doesn't look promising. In my opinion, that is so much potential with Olympic games. Looking beyond the "button mashing", the games have no personality. The crowd's emotion plays a vital role in the Olympics and its absent in the video games. Another thing is, why not throw hockey into the mix? For example, if EA decided to jump into the Olympic genre, they can simply use the NHL build with world teams, which would actually use less memory overall. That's just two things I can think of right now.

As for the control issues, I've got some ideas for some sports, primarily bobsledding. For example, the bobsled controls can be simply using the two analog sticks as the two steering handles inside the bobled. Drivers are required to pull at each side at different times, with little and a lot of pressure between the two handles, and that could be implemented into a game since the ability of pressure sensitve controlling exists. The only place I'm coming up blank is on how to control the push and the "jumping into the sled" at the beginning of the race.

Bottom line, Olympic games need the feel of the Olympics.

EDIT: There is so much you could do with an Olympic game on the Wii. You could base 80% of the events on the Wii board.

# 3 Acacia @ 03/25/10 08:15 AM

Discussions are always the main source of accurate information and to ensure a comfortable results, you can get immediate and reliable information, which will definitely help you in every area of your concern.

More Links

Tiny Toons, the Olympics, and a Lack of Evolution