ESPN International Winter Sports 2002

"A fun competition mode but that's about it"

I first must say that I have always enjoyed winter sports games more then summer sports games. The main reason I prefer them because there in normally more strategy involved in winter games where in summer games the basic strategy it move your finger across 2 buttons as fast as possible. Unfortunately almost 50% of the events in this game involve the one thing that has made me like winter games over summer games.

I purchased Konami’s Nagano Winter Olympic game a couple of years ago for the nintendo 64 and really enjoy it, so when I went out to rent this game I was expecting much of the same. I was VERY wrong. I imagine there are a lot of people who like this game but the only thing I found enjoyable about it were 3 events in the 2-player competition mode when playing either alpine skiing event or the bobsled. Since I do not concentrate much on graphics or sound in my reviews I will instead review the game by event.

Alpine Skiing: Downhill
This event was probably the best in the game for me and is a blast with another person. For anyone that does not know the object of downhill skiing is to ski down the hill going through gates as fast as possible. The course can be very challenging and my friend and me rarely completed it. The fun part of this game is to go after the other person if you get disqualified and try to make sure that they miss a gate by running into the while they are still going. My friend and me sat for hours playing to see who could make it to the finish two times without getting disqualified. I recommend this event to anyone on competition mode and almost recommend a rental of this game based completely on this event.

Alpine Skiing: Slalom
The slalom event is almost the same as the downhill except that there are about twice as many gates and they need very sharp cornering to get to the next one. Just like the downhill event this is very fun on 2 player when you are trying to cause the other person to miss a gate while trying not to miss one yourself. I never once completed this event in the 3 days I had this game but it is still fun on 2-player mode.

Ski Jumping: K90/K120 – Individual
I am combining both ski jumping events into one section because if I did not, I would probably be using the copy and paste feature in this program. In Nagano Winter Olympics, ski jumping was my best and favorite event. In ESPN international winter games 2002 it is one of the most complicated things I have ever tried to do in my life. I still have yet to figure out how to complete a jump in this event (I would normally ask someone to e-mail me and tell me how but I took this game back a week ago and will probably never rent it again). The K120 event is also the first event to feature the button mashing that I mentioned at the beginning. I have only really enjoyed 1 game that featured button mashing and that was because I had a turbo controller and did not have to do it.

Freestyle Skiing: Moguls
The freestyle skiing event is one that Konami improved on from the Nagano Winter Olympic game. This time instead of aerials they included moguls. This event is simple to figure out but difficult to complete. You press L and R according to the meter at the top of the screen until you get to a jump. Once at a jump you must perform a trick in the air using a combination of the control stick and the C stick. When I was first getting ready to start this event I was not expecting much and I was also expecting a lot of button mashing. This is a good event but not the best.

Snowboarding: Halfpipe
There is not much to this event. You go down the halfpipe automatically and you must stop the meter. When you stop the meter you also seem to completely stop time. This is a very strange way to execute the event and is a step back from the Nagano game. While time is temporarily stopped you must enter a combination shown at the bottom of the screen to correctly perform a trick. This event is very unrealistic and should have been executed differently.

Speed Skating
I HATE this event. It is all button mashing. The only skill involved in this event is the ability to move your finger across the A and B buttons as fast as possible. I will admit that one of the reasons that I do not like this event is because I do not have that ability. I think this event could have been a lot better if they had just left it the way it was in the Nagano Olympics game. Any other way would have been an improvement.

Bobsleigh
This event also involves the button mashing but I still think like it. At the start you must alternately press the A and B buttons as quick as possible while watching the meter at the top of the screen and pressing the L button when it tells you to so that you can put all 4 riders into the bobsleigh. Once you are done with your start you just use the control stick to keep your bobsleigh off the walls. This is the other of the 3 events that is fun in competition mode because when playing the bobsleigh with 2 players you both race on the same track at the same time. This can be extremely fun trying to make sure your friend can not get in front of you when you are in the lead. Even with the button mashing at the start of the event I still think this is a great event.

Curling
Curling is extremely fun in real life but in this game it has 2 things wrong with it:
1. Button Mashing – I have said it about 4 or 5 times but I Hate button mashing in a winter sports game. The button mashing should be left to the summer sports games (although I would love it if they could find a way to eliminate it from those games as well).
2. The sweepers – in this event you press A and B as fast as possible to get your sweepers to sweep. Except that you can start pressing the 2 buttons right after you throw and it still takes them half the sheet to start sweeping and it takes them another half to stop. This really effects the event negatively although if those two problems were fixed it would be a great event.

Figure Skating
I would really like to know why everyone likes this event so much? Maybe there are some people that like this style of games but I don’t. Normally if I do not like an event I would write some way to improve it but the only way I can see to improve this event is to take it out of the game. I see no point to having this event in the game and nobody I know enjoyed it, so if I had my way it would be eliminated from the game immediately.

To Sum Up:
Good Events:
Downhill Skiing
Moguls
Bobsleigh

OK Events:
Slalom Skiing
Halfpipe Snowboarding
Curling

Horrible Events
K90 Ski Jumping
K120 Ski jumping
Speed Skating
Figure Skating

The other think that I noticed was the fact that there are quite a few notable winter events missing. The main events I can think of are Luge, Cross Country Skiing, Hockey (although I do understand that there probably was not enough room to include a good hockey event in this game) and Biathlon.

Graphics and Sound
I do not really pay much attention to the graphics or the sound in games but I know most people do. The graphics in this game are pretty good and especially in the games on ice which have excellent reflections on the ice. The sound is just sort of there and is not anything memorable.

Replayability
For me this game did not have great replayability but you may find it better.

Rent or Buy?
I recommend a rental just for the fun competition mode but I would not pay the money to buy it.

Overall
It has a few fun events but does not have a lot to offer in the long run.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/11/02, Updated 12/29/02