ESPN Winter Sports 2002 by Konami at Toy Giant

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ESPN Winter Sports 2002 by Konami
Price: $4.09
Updated on 7-28-2008.

Product Review
The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City have inspired a lot of tie-ins and licensed material, but oddly enough one of the best 2002 Olympic-style sports games is based on the ESPN license, and completely lacks Olympic rings, torches, and fanfare. But even without official Olympic magic, ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 wins a gold thanks to smooth and simple play.

The game features just about every Winter Olympic sport worth watching: downhill alpine skiing, slalom skiing, bobsledding, half-pipe snowboarding, ski jumping, freestyle mogul skiing, speed skating, figure skating, and curling. Hockey is notably absent from this list; the game developer rightly assumed that hockey fans will be served by a dedicated hockey game such as NHL 2002.

The included events use clever but simple control schemes, and the basics of each event are explained with a tutorial designed to quickly teach users how to perform the necessary actions and go about the business of breaking records. For example, ski jumping involves quickly pressing two buttons and then a third to jump, pressing the first two again to extend your distance and the third again to land. Bobsledding mainly demands a smooth touch of the digital stick, while figure skating is a choreographed event in which the player performs onscreen prompts. It's amusing that a game for such a fancy new system uses a control scheme based on the old-school Track & Field arcade machine, but in the past 20 years nobody has come up with a better way to simulate Olympic sport.

While the controls may be dated, the graphics are unmistakably on the cutting edge. The game looks brilliant, crisp, and pure as the day after a light snow. The snow fans up when skiers turn, and the polygonal athletes have excellent facial graphics. The presentation is fantastic and so is multiplayer mode with a buddy.

So, when Olympic fever strikes--even if the Olympics are long gone--you'll want to have a copy of Konami's ESPN International Winter Sports 2002. --Bob Andrews

--This text refers to the Xbox version of the game.

Pros:

Excellent controls and a wide range of sports to play
Looks fantastic

Cons:

The controls aren't really simulations; they can even be physically tiring
It's missing Olympic accouterments and athletes

Product Description
Experience the thrills and brutal spills of cold-air competition with ESPN International Winter Sports 2002. The game's 10 fast-paced events include downhill alpine skiing, freestyle mogul skiing, bobsledding, speed skating, and more. Carve gates at death-defying speeds in the slalom or bust big air in the ski jump. There's even a curling competition. Compete in the trial mode and select events with aspirations of winning the gold and smashing records.

While in championship mode--the highest level of difficulty--you pick one country and compete in all events. Choose to represent the U.S., England, Canada, France, Holland, Italy, Japan, or Germany. Each country has its own unique characteristics, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. A two-player split-screen mode lets you go head-to-head in an in-your-face test of speed and skill. Crisp graphics render the winter conditions realistically, letting you spray snow in the slalom or stare down the glare of ice that faces you in the treacherous bobsled run.

Reader Reviews
Winter Sports 2002 isn't a great game. But anyone familiar with these types of Olympics games should know exactly what they're getting. There is a lot of hitting buttons ala 80's Track and Field style Olympic games. The difficulty of the games is getting the timing down and either you like that kind of game or you don't. If you do, then this game offers a couple of good events -- moguls and halfpipe are probably the most interactive events. The downhill skiiing is difficult to control and is quickly annoying. It also doesn't help that the characters lack any personality. Part of the fun of Track and Field was that there was a myriad of countries to choose from -- that's just not here. The music during the game is also somewhat mellow -- which I find appealing. I'm not interested in being stimulated for hours on a game console so this game works in that regard. The best thing to do with this game is have a friend over, crack open something intoxicating, then give the game a try. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)

ESPN Winter Sports 2002
Available from Amazon
Price: $4.09
Updated on 7-28-2008.

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