Previous Next

The very title of this one is enough to send the most robust of joysticks on strike and make the keyboard tremble in fear - Yep, it's another left/right-as-fast-as-you-can test of finger or wrist stamina!

I must admit that I did not like this type of game at first but then it grew on me until now I am hooked. The success of a game of this nature depends on the quality and realism of the grahics, no-one is going to work up a sweat over moving an indistinct blob around, so how have Ocean done? Well, I'm sure owners of Daley Thompson's Decathlon would have no doubts, the graphics are just as good if not better than before and Ocean should have another well-deserved hit on their hands.

Even though all the games have only left/right and sometimes fire as controls there is enough variation and judgement required to prevent them from becoming tedious. A brief run down and description of the events on side one is:

Pistol Shooting. Move cursor around the screen to random target and fire at centre.

Cycling. L/R as fast as possible.

Spring Board Diving. Three bounces and L/R for somersaults.

Giant Slalom. Steer L/R through the flags as they scroll up the screen toward you.

Rowing. L/R as fast as you can.

Penalties. L/R for speed, fire to jump and land.

Tug O' War. L/R for power.

Each one needs slightly different techniques to succeed and I personally enjoyed the shooting and ski jump whilst the tug-o'-war and diving gave me a lot of frustration.