ESPN International Winter Sports 2002

"Konami does winter sports on the PS2, Track & Field-style"

ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 arrived on the PS2 in time to greet the 2002 Winter Olympics, sans an Olympics license. It features 10 events, 16 fictitious competitors, a slick ESPN presentation, and a healthy dose of Track & Field-style button mashing (made famous by Konami). The events include downhill alpine skiing, half-pipe snowboarding, speed skating, figure skating, and more. Unfortunately, much like other games of this type, IWS 2002 delivers a limited amount of enjoyment and contains very little depth.

Graphics
The graphics in IWS 2002 are nothing spectacular, but they get the job done and contain few glitches. Fancy graphics are not terribly important here, since most of the events force you to keep your eyes focused on a meter or the heads-up display. Nevertheless, characters are well modeled, with detailed clothing and good facial texturing. Character animation is quite impressive and realistic, and the frame rate is smooth in all the events. Although the backgrounds are a bit dull--due to a limited color palette, generic background objects, and repetitive textures--small details such as reflections, snow particles, lively spectators, and animated clothing and hair add some visual excitement. The awesome TV-style introductions, replays, and celebrations are the game's most pleasing graphical aspects.

Audio
While IWS 2002 has good sound quality (the game's stereo sound has great separation and is well mixed), the music and sound effects are lackluster. The sound effects are weak and repetitive, and the characters' contrived yelps and groans are overly dramatic and annoying. What's more, Konami simply recycled the announcer from ESPN X Games Skateboarding, whose amateurish announcing does not suit this game. Moreover, when competing as a female character, you will occasionally hear the announcer use male pronouns instead of female ones. Ambient sounds are in limited supply, though the crowd noise is decent, if understated. Musically, innocuous pop, rock, and techno music plays throughout the game, and the figure skating event lets you select the background song.

Options
Apart from the obligatory sound, vibration, and save/load options, IWS 2002 does not have many options or features. You can choose among 16 male and female characters, each representing one of eight nationalities and carrying unique stats in the areas of power, speed, jumping ability, technique, and quickness. Stats cannot be adjusted or updated, and you cannot create your own character. Likewise, you cannot choose a character's equipment or accessories, but you can unlock special outfits for him or her to wear.

A handy, though bothersome, tutorial appears before each event, displaying text, video, and diagrams to teach you the basics and controls. Unfortunately, while the tutorial replaces the need for reading the instruction manual, it appears before every event, in every mode. Coupled with the many loading screens, this makes playing multiple events a chore because you must sit through additional loading screens, even when bypassing the tutorial. An option to disable the tutorial should have been included, as it would have reduced the time it takes to begin an event.

Gameplay
Three modes of play make up IWS 2002, including Trial, Competition, and Championship. Trial lets you compete in individual events against the computer, while Competition lets you play individual events against another player. Championship mode is a three-day event consisting of seven winter sports for the female athletes and eight for the male athletes. Events vary according to gender; for instance, the two ski-jumping events are strictly for male competitors, whereas figure skating is only for female competitors. Upon completion of the Championship mode, the game displays a code that you can enter at Konami's ranking Web site (no longer online).

The following is a breakdown of the events in the game:

Downhill Alpine Skiing - This is a simple event that challenges you to ski to the goal as quickly as possible, passing through gates as you go. Miss a gate and you are disqualified. You use the left analog stick to control your skier and the X button to carve. The skier responds smoothly to commands, and you can view the action through a first- or third-person perspective.

Slalom Alpine Skiing - Using the left analog stick to control your skier and the X button to carve, you must ski through a series of red and blue gates. As with the downhill event, the object is to make it to the bottom as quickly as possible, with disqualification resulting from a missed gate. The controls are not as tight as they should be, and some of the gates pop into view unexpectedly, throwing you off your run. In other words, this event is more frustrating than fun.

Freestyle Mogul Skiing - Mixing carving and stunts, this one-run event forces you to time shoulder-button presses as you hit moguls, and it challenges you to use trick creativity off ramps. You press the analog sticks in predefined directions to perform tricks off the two ramps. There are three groups of tricks (10 tricks in all), which you can call up during gameplay or view in the instruction manual.

K90 Ski Jumping/K120 Ski Jumping - The two ski jumping events involve launching off a ramp, landing as far and as gracefully as possible. Both events give you two attempts and let you set the wind before takeoff, but the K90 has you using the analog sticks, whereas the K120 is a pure button masher. Timing the jump off the ramp, however, is critical in both events.

Half-pipe Snowboarding - Instead of actually controlling your character in this event, you simply press directions on the digital pad that the game displays on the screen (similar to a music or dance game). However, you choose the difficulty of each trick--and thus each series of directional presses--via the face buttons. You have several trick opportunities to put together a solid run. Sadly, what should have been one of the game's most enjoyable events is one of its most boring, owing to limited control and player involvement.

Speed Skating - Tough and hectic, speed skating is all about rapidly mashing the Circle and X buttons alternately, making sure to reduce the rate of button mashing when approaching a curve.

Bobsledding - Pushing the bobsled involves mashing the Circle and X buttons, while boarding members of your team is done by pressing L1 or R1 when their meters are full. As you race down the ice, you can steer the sled with the digital pad or left analog stick. Wipeout-esque turbo strips give your sled an extra boost of speed and are the most exciting--even if unrealistic--elements of the event.

Figure Skating - If you have played any of Konami's Dance Dance Revolution games, this event will be a cakewalk. Before beginning your performance, you must choose one of three songs, each of which carries a specific difficulty. Then, you merely follow the on-screen arrows and button prompts, pressing the corresponding buttons on your controller in time with the music.

Curling - Ironically, curling (a.k.a. ''shuffleboard on ice'') is the deepest event in IWS 2002, though that does not mean it is the most enjoyable. In brief, the event has you sliding a stone down the ice as your teammates sweep the path to increase the stone's speed to a circular target. Although you have several attempts to accumulate points, you must compete against the opposing team for space within the circle. You use the digital pad or left analog stick to set the speed and curve of the stone and mash the Circle and X buttons to control the sweepers. After several rounds, the team that has managed to get the most stones closest to the center of the circle wins.

Value
With simplistic gameplay and a disappointing lack of events, features, and extras, the single-player game gets old fast. IWS 2002 entertains a bit more as a two-player game, but there are far better multiplayer games available, ones that your friends will actually want to play with you. Even if you are a huge fan of the events in IWS 2002, there is little here to keep you entertained beyond a few 30-minute sessions--unless you fancy curling, which takes longer to play than all the other events combined.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/13/04