ESPN International Track & Field

Track & Field and Olympic games have existed on every system. From the NES to the Nintendo 64 and Playstation. Well we're back with the company, Konami, that made pushing buttons fun. Not much has changed over the years, besides the graphics. The typical events have been in every incarnation of the games: 100 meter dash, hurdles, javelin, etc. etc. Does this most recent version, ESPN International Track & Field, live up to the reputations of its predecessors? Well that's what I'm about to tell you.

First off, lets look at what this game is all about. There are two choices for gameplay, either practicing the events or by going through a 3 day challenge where you battle other countries in every event. The easiest/most effective way to review this game is to look at each event on its own:

- 100 Meter Dash - In this event you just alternate the pushing of the X and O buttons. After a few times you will consistently place 1st or 2nd every time. Despite this, its always a fun event and is really great against multiple human opponents.

- 100 Meter Hurdles - Yet again, to run you alternate the pushing of X and O. To leap the hurdles you press L1 when a meter prompts you to do so. This is one of the more difficult events, as one screw up almost always dooms you.

- Trap Shooting - This event doesn't require the button speed of the others, instead this just relies on your accuracy. This looks like any of the first person shooters on the market as you aim your target at the clay pigeons. The graphics are excellent, and I love this event. It's a great change of pace.

- Long Jump - And again, to run you alternate X and O. Then as you approach the line, you press and hold L1 until it reaches the angle you want then release. This is pretty typical in all track and field games, but as always it works perfectly. After a few days with the game you will be a constant medal winner, but that world record is a bitch to attain.

- Pole Vault - Yeah you know the routine, X and O to run. Then as long as your speed is high enough, a symbol will rise on a meter, you must hit L1 when its above your height. The symbol will then rotate (signaling your leap over the bar), and you must hit L1 again without breaking the plane of your height. I know this makes no damn sense without playing the game, but trust me there is no better way to explain it. Personally I hate this event, for the life of me I can't make it into medal contention. I swear I could get higher than this in real life. I piss on the pole vault.

- Weightlifting - This event is a workout, to say the least. But weightlighting is always a chore, no matter which platform it has been on. This time around you nail the X and O buttons to get the meter to rise, hit L1 once its at your selected weight, then your player will hoist the bar, once its up you must nail X and O again until the entire meter is filled to complete the lift. After your 3 attempts in this event, you'll be praying for an event like Trap Shooting or Gymnastics to rest your weary fingers.

- Freestyle Swimming - This event finally switches up the buttons that you must push. Instead of X and O, you must tap the L1 and R1 buttons SIMULTANEOUSLY to swim. The closer they are to being pushed at the same time, the faster you will go. Once you get in a rhythm, you'll quickly distance yourself from the pack and will most likely break the world record on your second or third attempt at this event. This event is damn fun, but there is NO competition unless you play with friends. But when you have friends playing....THIS EVENT ROCKS!

- Javelin Throw - Okay let me say this right off the bat...I SUCK AT JAVELIN! I haven't been good at videogame javelin throwing since the NES days when you could nail the Space Ship if you threw the javelin straight up. Now that was pimpy! This event lacks all that flava though. It's much like the others, you alternate between X and O to run, then you hit and hold until the angle is up to your liking and release to throw. It's obvious my athletes are not using performance enhancing drugs, because I can't place in the top 5 no matter how hard I try. I'm not digging javelin throw.

- Horizontal Bar Gymnastics - The first time I showed this game to some of my friends (Hoss, Vertigo, Shooks, Fricke-Daddy) they were not impressed by this event in the least. I was mocked constantly for playing a game in which my character was clad in such form-fitting pants. But I made sure to make them notice how large my character's bulge was. Goc=fills out the crotch. Nuff said. Haha, but seriously to play this event it requires timing in selecting the move you are required to attempt, then once you have selected a move you must hit combinations of directions to complete the move in a given amount of time. This is a rather difficult event, but after a few days, you'll start to move into contention. A somewhat fun event..somewhat.

- Rhythmic Gymnastics - Another event that got me mocked by my peers. But I was doing the trash talking when I trounced them all in it. It was difficult to talk trash though, considering this event involves a baton with some sort of ribbon attached to it. "I'm a badass gymnast!" Those words will never be spoken and taken seriously. But enough about gymnastics gibberish, to play this event it requires you to hit directions on the control pad in a specific order. Think Space Channel 5, and you're on the right track. This event is a nice change of pace from just button mashing, and even though its gymnastics it's pretty fun.

Well that sums it up for the events in ESPN Track & Field. For no apparent reason, here is a list of how much I like them (from best to worst): Shooting, Swimming, 100 M, Long Jump, Horizontal Bar, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Hurdles, Pole Vault, Javelin Throw.

All in all, the events are enjoyable in this game. One gripe I have is that the same combination of button pushing was used in too many events. Sure alternating X and O works well, but why not switch it up for some variety. Why not have some event where you just push one or two buttons as fast as you can (which is always fun). Or some event that involves timing or maneuvering with the analog sticks. Or even some type of around the world button pushing, where you hit the buttons in a circle manner. Or perhaps one where your stamina went up and down depending on how fast you pushed the buttons, and you would have to take your resourches into consideration. Making each event different in some way would make this game alot more deep. Instead every event ends up being much of the same. And if you have to play 3 or 4 of the button mashers in a row, you're going to end up blowing out a finger.

My other gripe with this game, is that there are just aren't enough events. Where's the hammer throw, the 400 Meters, or any relay events? The original playstation version of this game had more events, so what happens on the PS2...they have even less events. How much sense does that make??? I thought things got better in the future..not worse. And what's the story with the ESPN license and the real athletes in the game? You get nothing that in any way ties ESPN into the game and the names of the athletes are replaced by your user name...so does it really matter? What a waste.

But these things can't be fixed, we just have to deal with the game that they've made. And there are many good things about ESPN Track & Field. The graphics are beautiful in nearly every event and the presentation is TV quality. Some sort of play by play would have been nice to add hype, like some announcer screaming "The US is coming back!". But my favorite part of the game is the stat tracking. For each event it keeps track of the 5 best performances and includes the name of the user who achieved each score. This adds tons of replayablity to the game as you try and one-up yours and others previous scores. Also after gaining certain amounts of medals, special features are unlocked where you can view interviews with some of the athletes that were motion-captured for the game. But unless you're a track an field super-fan...you probably won't care. I didn't care.

The Good!		The Last Word(s): If you've enjoyed track and field games on previous systems, this game will be right up your alley. The gameplay doesn't go much further than button-mashing, but is there any other way to do a track & field game? Until they figure it out, this is the formula and ESPN Track & Field has it down. If this game had more events and some sort of career mode, it would easily score in the 90's, but alas it comes up short. But if you have 3 friends (who like button mashing) and a multitap, this is a must own!Final Rating: 67% Coolio
Incredible graphics! Great 4 player action. Keeps Top 5 scores on each event.
The Bad...
Many events have similar control. Real athlete licenses and ESPN license is wasted. Hard on the fingers and the dual shock.
The UGLY.
Not Enough Events.