Sega Nerds

Review: Beijing Olympics 2008

by Graham on July 3rd, 2008

In my lifetime I have only ever played one Olympics game which I have really enjoyed, and that was (surprisingly) last year’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympics.

On the whole I can play them, and find some enjoyment - but when it all comes down to it, tapping two buttons constantly to make a guy run forward isn’t my idea of a good game.  Which is why I found Mario & Sonic fun, because the controls felt more ‘realistic’ and made the game fun - plus the added bonus of watching Sonic swim with a life-jacket.

So this is Sega’s next attempt at recreating the Beijing Olympic games, but this time with a heck of a lot more realism.  So how does it compare to the Wii-waggling fun of Mario & Sonic?

Despite the enormous (and continuing) success of Mario & Sonic, on the Wii and DS, Sega opted not to bring the Beijing Olympics 2008 game (just Beijing 2008 from now on)  to the Nintendo consoles, which is quite a surprise for many Sega Nerds.  So instead of imitating general sports activities by waving the controllers in the air, once again we need to tap buttons to get our characters feet moving.

Beijing 2008 is (quite easily) the most realistic Olympics game I have played, and as such Sega has incorporated a whole load of sporting events which you don’t always see in other Olympics titles - such as Judo, rapid pistol shooting, gymnastics - plus many others.

With all these different events, and a bid to make the game control realistically, Sega has had to add different control schemes for many of the events.   Well, every event uses the A + B buttons  - tapping them ferociously - to run.  But Sega also included the option to use the analogue sticks as well.

It seems strange that Sega didn’t want a Wii version, because instead of waggling a remote, you end up waggling the analogue stick.  Don’t get me wrong - I do prefer using the analogue sticks over pressing A + B, and it does add some variety to the gameplay - as each event will use the sticks in different ways.  But I really feel like this could be one game which will wreck my 360 controllers! (You have to be pretty rough to get anywhere).  At least with the Wii, you didn’t have to yank on the stick to play, or break your fingers tapping buttons.

Another annoyance I found with the game is when to start.  As far as I can remember with other Olympic titles, when you start the race you basically wait for the gun/whistle and then start tapping like a maniac.  But with Beijing 2008 you have a bar, which you use the L and R triggers to fill.  The bar fills up, to a red block at the end, and in hitting the red block you start.

Letting go of the trigger will make you bar slide back down.  The problem here is judging when to actually hit the red block.  Being realistic, you hear the starter shout “Set!” and then you have to wait for the bang.  But there is no real indication for when the gun will go off - and therein lies my annoyance.

Pretty much every AI character will shoot off immediately as the gun goes, leaving me with a second or two delay to start.  Any athlete will tell you that the start is crucial to a race, and this screws up your chances badly.  The best I came up with is that it takes about 4 seconds for the gun to go off, but I still have difficulty timing it.

Other niggling things to make me cry:

The game has a few different modes of play.  One is Training - where you (naturally) get to select which ever event you want, and try to work out how to play it.  So you can happily try out any event as many times as you like, and beat records.  One other cool feature here is that you can actually train with friends via Xbox Live - so it is like you are training with a buddy.

You then get Competition mode, which is basically the main multiplayer mode of the game.  Play with people on the same Xbox, Network or on Xbox Live.  I’ll speak more about this in a bit.

And finally you get the Olympic Games mode.  This is where you have to compete in certain events, each day.  Initially you have the qualifying heats, and should be screw up (as I did multiple times) in too many events then it is game over.  But the game saves each day, so all is not lost - you can continue from the start of the day you failed.

This is where another annoyance comes along.  You earn points each day, which you can then spend on set skills - such as speed, power, agility etc…

Now, in some sports games, like Ready 2 Rumble Boxing or Ultimate Fighting Championship, when you train you actually build up your skills, or earn points for skills.  But this is not the case in Beijing Olympics.

Surely to make it into an Olympic squad, you will have been training hard, and should be ready for the event.  But in the game it’s the other way - you join a team, go to Beijing, and then ‘train-as-you-compete.’  WTF?

It would make so much more sense to have it so that the training mode is a way to build up set skills or earn points for the main gameplay mode.   Or, don’t even put the whole skills thing in the game!  The way it is, just seems a tad backwards to me.

One other thing is that you aren’t told the actual rules for events.  Now naturally, most events are fairly obvious, but there comes the odd event which I have no idea about. For example we have Judo.

I know what Judo is, I know the rough idea behind it as a sport, and form of self defence, but I don’t know the full ins and outs of it to compete in a tournament.  You are told the controls in the game, which is fine - but it’s when you score random points or get told off for performing an illegal move that you get frustrated.

It can’t all be bad though can it?

Well no, certainly not, there is plenty of fun to be had.

A lot of events are pretty damn addictive.  I spent a good 2 hours training with the pistols, and similarly with the high diving.  In fact I would say this game is easily the most enjoyable, of the realistic Olympic titles I have ever played.

Also for when you find certain button presses tricky or tiring, there is the slow-motion button, which gives you crucial time to perform set moves, like in the field events.

Another lovely touch is how the display boards and screens around the stadium display your Gamertag, and your personal best score, plus the official Olympic and World records for each event.

The single player won’t feel much different from other titles, with the exception of some controls and events.  But the game really does impress when it comes to the online (Competition) mode.

I’m not a huge fan of competitive gameplay - unless it’s team-based.  Yet, when I was playing online the other night, with complete strangers, I found myself actually shouting at the TV and getting involved with the game.

Some events you have to take it in turns to play - like with javelin or long jump (all field events really) - and I was getting all worked up when I was doing poorly, and laughing at others when they screwed up.  Ultimately I was having a real blast with the multiplayer.

And really that is what the Olympic Games are about - athletes competing against each other.  It’s no good playing against the AI in a game like this.  You need to take on the rest of the world!  And thankfully this is the one game which lets you do this.

It’s a shame that Mario & Sonic didn’t have any online play.

~Don’t forget about the ‘Blind Date’ mini-game~

So what are you telling us?

The game is surprisingly good fun, and addictive.  It has certain flaws though, but many of the issues I have are the same issues I have had with all Olympic titles, and I don’t think they will ever change.

Quite frankly, I suck at the game, and constantly failing certain events was getting to me - I was ready to throw in the towel and just give up.  But the online mode stopped me.

One thing about playing against other humans is that they will also have the same troubles as you - especially when it comes to starting races.  I found that everyone had a delay, like I did in single player - so the start of the races was more equal.

Graphically the game is sound, they won’t blow your mind, but it looks good enough and the character animations - especially in gymnastics and diving events - are pretty damn good.

Summary:

The concept of mashing buttons (tiring your fingers out) is still present, which I hate.  The analogue waggling feels like it could break the controller - as you need to do it hard and fast to get anywhere (that’s what she said).

I still can’t help but feel that waving Wii-motes around could have felt more enjoyable.  That said, Nintendo has the crappiest online service around, and the best part of the game is the online play.

I reckon if you enjoy other Olympic video games, then you will probably love this one (and may want to bump the score up by one or two).  As I have said, I’m not really a fan of these games - but I have been enjoying myself quite a lot.  The multiplayer is great, and if you haven’t got your 360 or PS3 online, then you’ll be missing out on the best thing about the game.

6/10 - GOOD

~G~

[Images from Sega]

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POSTED IN: G, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Review, Sony PlayStation 3