Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

With the Olympics currently in full swing over in Beijing, we're seeing a handful of Olympics and track and field games hit store shelves. The latest comes from 49Games, Summer Athletics: The Ultimate Challenge. Though SEGA wrapped up the official Olympics license with the aptly-titled Beijing 2008: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games, Summer Athletics still has many of the events that you'd expect to find at the games, totaling more than 20 in the package.



Events range from things like the 100m dash to diving to various swim events to cycling to archery and more, giving players a good and wide variety of challenges to take part in. An interesting twist to the overall gameplay mechanic is that in many modes (though not the main Career mode) you're able to switch between Pure and Arcade settings. Pure relies solely on your skill, though Arcade tosses in a handful of bonuses that you can use during events, like a boost during a running event or so forth. You're limited in the total number that you can use over the course of a competition to keep you from relying on them to win every event, but if you're half-decent at something, it'll easily push you over the edge.



Of course, the Arcade option is just that, an option, and playing the game in the default Pure mode is where it's best. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot about the game that's worthy of praise. At its best, some of the events are competent, but there are a handful that are aggravating.



The "basics" like the 100 meter dash are exactly what you'd expect -- wait for the gun and run as fast as you can. Others, like the pole vault, have some interesting tweaks. Here, you run as quickly as you can, and once you're near the spot, you press and hold the left trigger, wait for the power to climb, and release it when it's over the height requirement (the maximum power you can hit is based on how fast you ran). Then, you need to rotate the right analog stick to keep your posture and not lose any of your height. With diving, you have to first time button presses with a ball that swings left and right to set your jump, and then you need to play a DDR-esque game to perform the moves. Then, you need to move icons for the two analog sticks into the center of the screen to properly finish the dive.



If some of this sounds complicated, you may want to note that I've done a better job of explaining the events than the game does. The first time or two in many of the events, you'll find yourself scratching your head at the instructions, jumping in to see what the hell it's talking about, and then failing a couple times before picking it up.



Presentation issues don't end there. When you're in a Career, you get to train your athlete after each event. The number of points you assign to train each category doesn't directly correspond to your overall ratings, so it's a bit of guesswork as to how much you'll earn when you actually press the Train option. Furthermore, the game doesn't tell you what the next event is going to be until after you've trained, unless you copy down the list during the introductory screen.



The Career mode is broken up into three sections, Amateur, Pro and Summer Athletics, and your character can carry over from one round to the next. During the Amateur round, you won't have problems winning many of the events, though when you hit Pro, you'll have a really hard time. I found it necessary (or easiest at least) to go ahead and just play through one complete round of the Pro level in order to build up my stats, and then play it a second time to actually be able to compete very well. For instance, my running stat was cranked about as high as it would let me at that point (you're capped by a Potential rating that slowly increases) and I was getting schooled in running events, despite the fact that I was pushing the speed meter to its maximum.



There is some fun to be found in a number of the events, once you get them down, however. As complicated as the instructions are, the diving event can be reasonable fun, even though it's pretty difficult. The pole vault and all of the throwing events can be entertaining for a bit, though I had no problems dominating the competition once my stats were decent.



Lastly though, it's worth noting that you can only run by wiggling the right analog stick. You cannot alternate between A and B to sprint, which will alienate some longtime Track & Field fans.

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