Amiga

The Games: Summer Edition

Niggles notwithstanding. The Code Monkeys have done a very creditable job – you would be very hard pressed not to find something you would enjoy here. But what a shame we did not have boxing. Remember the Korean team? Missed out on a serious piss-taking opportunity there.

Gegenüber der 64er-Version ist einiges dazugekommen: so sind die Icons der Disziplinen animiert, und es gibt jetzt mehr Gags. In Game-Sounds und eine ganze Reihe irrer Zooms. Leider hat man aber auch manch hübsche Kleinigkeit weggelassen, die Medaillenverleihung ist beispielsweise in der 16 Bit-Fassung nicht animiert. Zum Ausgleich ist die Ladegeschwindigkeit erträglich, und auch die Diskwechsel halten sich in vertretbaren Grenzen. Wer auf Sportsimulationen steht, dem garantiert Summer Edition wahrhaft olympischen Spielspaß!

The title in the 'Games' series I have every really rated is California Games. However, The Games: Summer Edition surpasses even that in terms of graphics and playability. Sound, too, is of a very high standard, with a nice tune accompanying each event. The thing I liked the most, though, was the fact that each of the events is extremely playable and, unlike past games in the series, not one event is a let-down.

Sensible control systems make it easy to get into the game straight away but cleverly designed events mean that much practice will be required. The little touches of humour and style are present as in all Epyx games and they really do help to keep the player hooked until you can boast absolute perfection. One grip is that the program is on two disks and it does not recognise the second disk drive which means that a reasonable amount of disk swapping is required. Nevertheless The Games Summer Edition is a useful multi-format sports simulation software and I do not hesitate to recommend it.

There is little left to be said about Epyx’s sport simulations: they are always competent and enjoyable. This one has been well programmed, delightfully presented and has some excellent highlights. It is not going to get too many pulses racing though, because there is not much new about it.

As usual with Epyx, the presentation of Games is very good with different music with different music for each event and some nice graphical touches. Sadly, as in the 64 version, the events themselves are very simplistic, requiring very little input from the player. Although this makes Games very easy to get into, its long term appeal is severely impaired.