Game Boy Advance

Salt Lake 2002

Salt Lake 2002 is an excellent, enjoyable romp through some Olympic events. The game is definitely challenging.

Sinn des Handhelds erkannt und ein passendes Spiel dazugestrickt. Die zwar alte, aber bewährte Kombination aus Timing und Reaktionsschnelligkeit eignet sich zusammen mit dem schnellen Spielablauf für kein System besser als für ein Handheld. So können Euch die Winterspiele auch in technisch zweckmäßigem Gewand begleiten, wenn Ihr euch von der Flimmerkiste loseisen müsst.

The Winter Olympics took place this past February, and like every other Olympiad in the past decade or so, the events are followed by a couple of videogames that encourage the people at home to go for the gold. So, you, sitting on the couch at 3 am with the potato chip bag on your stomach, it’s your turn to achieve excellent fitness. Place yourself in front of a radiant screen with no other surrounding light, and flex those muscles. Flex those finger muscles like never before. Each of these videogames attempts to inspire that Olympic fever in all of us. However, most of these titles remain unsuccessful.

Salt Lake 2002 is a compilation of six different winter events, all based on official events in the Winter Olympics. Players can choose to play a single event, a group of events in a single shot, or challenge the record in a time trial or arcade mode.

I'd avoid this game faster than doing the skeleton nude. The modes are no fun - and neither is the gameplay. No button-mashing is a good-thing, but in this case it turns out to be just boring.

It is now customary to expect that each set of Olympic games will inspire a plethora of gaming titles on a variety of platforms. Salt Lake 2002 is an officially licensed Olympic game that brings half a dozen Olympic style events to the GBA. Up until now, I've found most Olympic-themed titles, on any platform, to be fairly transient and temporal. Like Olympic paraphernalia, once the rush of Olympic fever is over, I'm not quite sure what to do with Sydney 2000 hats or Salt Lake 2002 jerseys. The same feeling goes for games and unfortunately, Salt Lake 2002 is not memorable either.

Salt Lake 2002 se place clairement en-dessous de ESPN International Winter Sports de Konami sur le même support. Le titre d'Eidos souffre d'un manque d'épreuves évident et d'un gameplay très limité qui ne procure aucun plaisir de jeu. Si vous cherchez à tout prix un soft reprenant le contexte des JO d'Hiver, tournez-vous plutôt vers le titre de Konami qui propose des épreuves beaucoup plus intéressantes et ludiques, le tout étant d'ailleurs largement mieux réalisé.