Winter Olympics: Lillehammer '94

aka: The XVII Olympic Winter Games: Lillehammer 1994
Moby ID: 9596
DOS Specs
Buy on SNES
$9.95 used on eBay
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Description official descriptions

This is the official license of Winter Olympics tournament in 1994 at Lillehammer, Norway. You can practice in any event before the tournament. The game offers two modes - Full Olympics and Mini Olympics, which vary in the number of events.

It includes 5 different types of sports - biathlon, alpine skiing (downhill, slalom, giant slalom and Super-G), ski jumping (90 m, 120 m), bobsleigh (2/4 men bob, 1/2 men luge) and skating (elimination, pursuit, time trial). The events use 3D views.

Spellings

  • ウインターオリンピック - SEGA Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (SNES version)

11 People

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  • Version Date: 17/10/1993
Team

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 62% (based on 30 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.8 out of 5 (based on 26 ratings with 1 reviews)

How to NOT make a winter sports game

The Good
When compared with Salt Lake 2002 (the last official title to be released as the time I'm writing) the game has a lot of variety, with a total of 10 events, but "variety" is used very loosely, as from those 4 are events based on gates (Downhill, Giant Slalom, Super G and Slalom) and two (Luge and Bobsled) are virtually identical, except for one being slightly faster. Still, the remaining four (Ski jump, Biathlon, Moguls and Short track) are rather unique, so at least there's some variety. I'm also fond of some the music tracks and the (few) sound effects and the art direction did a good job in the use of the mascots and the menus look appropriate, although a bit on the spartan side.

The Bad
Gameplay is non-existent in some events. While the controls are bearable in Downhill, as gates decrease in size on Giant Slalom and Super G, a single trajectory miscalculation means disqualification, either from hitting a gate (which I'll go into more detail next), trees or from passing outside the gate. If this is bad, in slalom things get worse, as even a single touch on a flag sends your athlete belly up and thinking what happened. Anyone, and I mean anyone who spent some time watching these events knows that most falls are caused from failing to get a proper position in one of the skis, or going too fast on a change of direction, NOT hitting a flag. In slalom, almost all flags in the better trajectories are hit - in here, at the first contact the skier is eating snow. However, if this is not enough, there are some inaccuracies in others - In Luge and Bobsled, the counter is already counting when the player is doing the initial speed buildup, moguls should be all about turning and clinching two jumps in the proper platforms (which are absent) and finally, the effects of fatigue in Biathlon are nowhere to be seen, and the gameplay is nearly absent in it.

Graphics are little more than adequate, Of course that white is the dominating colour, but that does not explain the lack on detail and animations on the game.

The Bottom Line
This is no Winter Challenge. Like racing games, winter sports all profit a lot from having even the most basic of 3D graphics. It's much better to see the gates as they approach instead of having to guess if the next is left or right. While it's interesting to have a points and a medals table, as the player is prone to miss completely at least two events (and possibly in five or six), winning the points medal is quite difficult, (and took me around five years to achieve on the real stuff - with emulators and save states might less).

The game fails pretty much on a lot of aspects due to hardware limitations and poor gameplay options. Not recommended, even for fans of the genre.

Genesis · by Luis Silva (13444) · 2005

Trivia

Manual

The game's instruction manual (for the PC and Amiga versions, at least) is notably poorly worded. A number of grammatical mistakes are made, and several sections make little sense. Examples include "made of concrete to high standards, competitors are subjected to forces of up to 4G" (which, taken literally, suggests that the competitors are made of concrete - the reference to the bobsleigh course was in the previous sentence), and a suggestion that, in Full Olympic mode, you can watch the opening ceremony AFTER completing the events.

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  • MobyGames ID: 9596
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Cabeza2000.

SEGA Master System, Genesis, Game Gear added by grimace. SNES added by Kabushi. Amiga added by Martin Smith.

Additional contributors: chirinea, Alaka, Martin Smith, formercontrib, Tarquinius Superbus.

Game added July 7, 2003. Last modified January 28, 2024.