POSTED 1/7/12


LONDON 2012

SEGA
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, PC)

Swedes are sneaky. Not the turnip-like veggies, rather the Scandinavian variety. Not only have they provided the best palindromic pop band ever, as well as having a great line in Muppet culinary mastery, they also have 43 more gold medals than us Aussies. That tiny place!

Such trivia abounds in this latest stab at an Olympics videogame, just part of presentation that’s top notch (save for an apparent inability to do what a Commodore 64 could some 30 years ago, smooth text scrolling). The visual style reflects that love-it-or-hate-it brightly-coloured, angular style London’s Olympic committee opted for, commentary is plentiful (although often repetitive) and there’re stacks of events.

Yep, they’re bountiful. Some 45-plus (including motion-enabled), naturally with many being similar – hello running and swimming. Elsewhere there’s the expected diving and track, plus more interesting things including archery, shooting, canoeing, volleyball, ping pong, cycling and tramampoline.

As is the way with such grab bags of different games, there’re hits and there’re misses. It seems the creators strived to get away from button mashing, despite the fact that this was a fun and perfectly cromulent style of play. As such, some events require precise angular twiddling of analogue sticky things, or acrobatic controller juggles (we’re looking at you, weightlifting – X mashing then precise double analog movements? Come on!)

Play the Olympics out via two events per in-game day, queue just the events you want, hop online, get up to four people happening – they’re all options. Online has added funk via adding to your chosen country’s medal tally, too.

Sports compendiums are generally something best brought out when friends are around, but London 2012’s controls scupper that, as everybody won’t be able to just pick up and play. Still, it’s a fun diversion while we wait for the real thing to end – bring on New Order, Blur and The Specials!

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