ESPN International Track & Field

"Aimed at those button-mashing fans only. Otherwise, avoid..."

~~~Introduction~~~
Konami bring us the first Olympic game of the PS2 era, and quite frankly, there's a lot of room for improvement compared to the Playstation 1's legendary Track and Field, which was a smash hit and incredibly fun. ESPN International Track & Field is, surprisingly, not a pick up and play game, as getting your fingers to mash the buttons is harder than you think, as one slip can cause you to lose concentration completely. Anyway, let's get on with it, shall we?

~~~Graphics 6/10~~~
The graphics, quite frankly, are a bad. A certain improvement from some games we have seen coming from the year 2000 on the PS2, but there's still room for improvement in this section. The characters (the very few that there is representing each country; 3 at the most per country) don't look too bad, but some of them almost do look identical. The athletes look very dull, very patchy, and poorly done. The stadium the evens take place in look fairly impressive, There's certain little factors such as the athletes not actually holding the javelin, and hands moving around and sometimes coming off the ground in the start up to the 100M Dash that let the game down.

~~~Sound - 4/10~~~
Very, very dull. The entire game has around 3 songs in total, the announcer sounds ludicrously bad, and at times, sounds like an automated robot doing the voice. The crowd sounds bad, sometimes cheering madly at completely unnecessary times, and silent at times when you are victorious. The athletes doing the weight lifting sound rather funny if I'm quite honest, as if they've been impaled by a javelin (no pun intended to relation of an Olympic game...) as they repeat an awfully fake "GYYUUGHH!" every-time they lift the weights. Overall, very dull and not exciting at all.

~~~Multi-player - 7/10~~~
Finally, a part of the game where we get to have a bit of fun! Challenging a few mates to see who can launch the Hammer the furthest, or smash is the world record is always a good laugh, especially when you get 4 or 5 people attempting it. Only problem is, aside from a few events, the multi-player is incredibly dull. Taking it in turns to easily leap over the High Jump is a snore, taking it in turns to slowly gain more height in the Pole Vault is a drag, and watching each-other shoot inanimate objects in the Trap Shooting is boring. Aside from 5 or 6 events which are, no doubt, good fun, the rest are advised to stay away from.

~~~Things To Do - 4/10~~~
This is what really hits the game hard. The massive lack of things to do. Sure, it's an Olympic game, what were you expecting? You have Trial Mode, where you can practice at any events, or Championship mode, where you compete to earn the gold by collecting points as you play each event simultaneously and that becomes a drag. Doing this on your own is very boring, unless you're a dedicated mad Olympics fan and adores this kind of thing.

~~~Playtime/Replay-ability - 3/10~~~
This game lasted me barely a week. Like I will advise in the Overview, a week is long enough to smash the records and get tired of every event. The thing about the replay-ability is, that's all there is to this game. Doing the same events over and over until you get the Gold medal. Playtime is very very short, as 10 events is hardly something to last a gamer a lengthy time.

~~~Overview~~~
I'm sure I have mentioned it a few times, and I'll say it again, the Multi-player is the only thing that can give this game ANY hope at being the least bit entertaining. You have to be a very dull person to sit on your own and play this game yourself, so if you want to get this game, then make sure you get a few friends around to join you. Quickly going over the whole game, the graphics are uninteresting and square like, and the characters all look similar. The sounds are boring, the announcer sounds like a robot, and the weigh lifters in particular sound like they're screeching war cries. Not much to do, trial mode and championship mode, and of course, as most gamers will be trying to achieve in this game, is to claim all of the world records for each particular event. Repetitively boring, doing the same thing over and over again. If you're the type of hardcore gamer who liked to painfully mash the Circle and X button repetitively, then sure, this game will be a breeze for you. Rent or Buy? Rent. A week of this game with your friends is easily enough time to smash all the records and get enough out of all the events without becoming disgracefully annoyed at them all.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/08

Game Release: International Track & Field 2000 (EU, 12/08/00)