Torino 2006

Can Torino 2006 capture the excitement of the Winter Games on the Xbox?

Ah the Olympics...since the mid-1980s, there have been plenty of videogames that attempt to recreate Olympic competition – whether they be licensed or unlicensed.

Activision's Decathlon was one of the first – and many others soon followed. Most of the games of the 80's revolved around pressing 2 buttons as fast as possible or moving the joystick left to right until your hands fell off.

Then there was Summer Games, Summer Games 2 and Winter Games by Epyx. Winter Games didn't have as many games in it, but it was still enjoyable to play. Since then we've seen "official" Olympic games since 1988, and pretty much every version has been nearly unplayable.

Torino 2006 is no exception. It doesn't even try for the medal stand. I believe page 3 of the instruction manual says it all when it says "Welcome to the Olympic Winter Games" in one paragraph and then "Please be aware that due to gameplay considerations some of the rules used in this video game are not the official ones supplied.”

Anyway, the game serves up "8 different disciplines over 15 different events." Think of a racing game, and how you play the same track mirrored and upside down counts as "3 race tracks" but it's still the same basic track. Well that's sort of the way Torino gets to 15.

For example, there are "two" ski jump events: a 'normal hill' and a ‘large hill', but basically it's the same in terms of skill required or in ability – although you do stay in the air longer. Calling it two different events though is a pretty good reach.

The other events in the game are: Alpine Skiing (including downhill, super G, giant slalom, regular slalom), Speed Skating, Cross-Country Skiing, Biathlon (Cross-Country Skiing and shooting), Bobsleigh (Never have I heard it called bobsleigh before in the US, but whatever), Luge, Nordic Combined (Ski Jumping & Cross Country Skiing).

If there are ever games that don't come across well on a console, these would be it. The best Skiing game is still the oldest and I'm referring to the aptly named "Skiing" for the Atari 2600.

I will say that the Skiing in Torino looks pretty good graphically and the control isn't bad, but you really aren't doing much to control your player. Most winter games do require some amount of skill, but here you really aren't doing much besides going downhill. Seriously, if real skiing were like this, I'd be awesome.

The Ski Jump sounds like it would be fun, but it isn't. As you start your descent you have to keep your man centred by moving your controller left or right. You then push the A button to jump. You then have to continue to keep your balance by using the left thumbstick. Exciting it isn't.

Speed skating has some potential, but again, the old Epyx Winter Games has this one beat. Actually it's the same control except instead of going left/right in rhythm on the joystick, you have to hit buttons A and B. In higher levels you have to steer but on easy mode, it's ridiculously easy.

Cross Country Skiing is enjoyable in real life but again, horribly boring here. You have to balance your 'sprinting' with your 'tucking' but whenever you're going uphill you slow to a crawl. It is jut not fun.

The Biathlon is a combination of Cross Country Skiing with shooting – once lying prone and another time standing up. In the old C64 game, your pulse was monitored throughout – the higher your pulse, the harder it was to shoot. Torino does the same thing here, but the way they do them is different. You can take out the targets in any way you'd like in this game. You are assessed a time penalty if you miss a target.

The Bobsleigh and Luge are very similar races, even performed on the same track. In the bobsleigh, you're in a Bobsled, and on the luge, you're pretty much on your own, flying down the track on a lovely ice paddle. Again you're just steering left and right, making sure you don't hit the sides of the track.

Graphics in the game are passable but you'd be hard pressed to think you're in Italy. Control of the game is almost too simple – I've seen web games that have more skill required than this on the easy levels.

Don't get me started about the audio. The play by play is just plain awful. You'll hear the same commentary over and over again – especially if you hit the wall in ‘bobsleigh' or luge. Every time you are shown a split time in any event, you'll hear comments that may or may not pertain to you.

In a truly bizarre fashion, you don't win timed events by having the best time. Instead, your time is converted into points. Seriously, I'm not making this up. The records are shown in points! You can go back and view the actual times from the main menu, but on the official records for each game if you're running all of the events, it's your score that wins. I'm sorry, did I ask for the Olympics to become and arcade game? What the heck where the developers thinking here?

Also, when you compete, the developers decided to make it gender-equal, so some events are ‘women's' and others are ‘men's' but you can't decide. So if you're a guy, named "Dan", you'll be racing the downhill as a woman named Dan. If you think that's bad, wait until you see the names of the other competitors. Oh wait, they don't have names! That's right – their names are "Computer 1" and "Computer 5." You've got to be kidding me!

So, since the single player is so bad, at least there's multiplayer…well, not really, because this game doesn't even support Xbox Live. It does support single console multiplayer, but at this point, big deal. Seriously, I've seen shockwave games that had more excitement than this.

This review courtesy of our friends at Gameshark .