Seriously disappointed with this, to the point were I'm genuinely considering trying to quickly get shot of it and picking up the WiiU game.
Firstly, there are quite large-scale issues which the gaming sites have been talking about. For instance, there's no way to play a series of events, like a Decathlon for instance. Instead, to do a number of events, you have to do an event, then go back to the event selection menu each time - picking your characters too. As the events are short, this can make you feel you're staring at loading screens for much of the game. Then, the explanations for the events, while fine, feel really basic in comparison to the wonderful way Super Mario Party works, and you can't even "practice" after reading the instructions.
I'd be like if, in MarioKart, you couldn't do the GP in multiplayer - you could only do the vs races. So no doing multiple events and having an eventual winner after half an hour.
Each of these features was present in some of the prior titles, so it's kinda bewildering they're left out.
Then you get to some of the more nitty-gritty problems.
They've taken the bizarre decision to make it splitscreen, so for example, when you do the Javelin, you all do the Javelin at the same time, not taking turns, which bucks the trend for Olympics minigame collections. On the one hand, many of the events are the type you'd expect to be simultaneous (the 100m dash, for example) and I presume they desired some symmetry... But personally I think it was a mistake. This also means that the game is 30fps (presumably running in 60 in single-player, though I haven't confirmed that yet).
Then, there are only 3 "dream events", and they're okay, but nothing stellar. Certainly they fall short of the ones on the Canada Winter Olympics title for the Wii, which had more, and those took place in locations actually from prior games (like one of them was on a level from Sonic Adventure 2). I think the Dream Racing takes place somewhere from Sonic Forces, but the fact that I'm uncertain of this is itself a problem.
Finally, to the events themselves... Unfortunately they're a mixed bag. It's great that they've managed to bring in some of the big new events for 2020, such as Karate, Sport Climbing and Skateboarding, but I don't think these should come at the expense of other events. There's no long jump, no high jump, no hammer throw, no shot put, no pole vault... I kinda think any good Olympics game should really feature the main athletics events, and only branch out once they have those covered.
If I'm to theorise... These games have had a speckled history. The first one was mechanically quite bad; the novelty was fresh and it was decent Wii party fare, but as a game it was quite basic and even then, didn't control well due to the Wii waggletastic controls. The later ones improved it, but the London title had the issue that this made it too easy; once you've played the events once or twice, the London one became a game of "whoever screws up loses", rather than "who plays the best wins". I haven't personally played the WiiU one yet, but I think with this 2020 game, they wanted to avoid what happened with the London game, and they've made the controls more nuanced, but not always in the right way.
For example, on the Javelin, you have to throw at a specified "perfect angle" which you do by holding the direction on the analog stick - but there's no onscreen counter to tell you what angle you're at. You also have to throw early enough to avoid stepping over the line for a foul, but the point-of-no-return for this is quite unclear. It does mean that it's unlikely people will perfect it on the third go, and just be able to throw repeatable world record throws, but it also means that the game is kinda nebulous.
In a sense, this is not a party game. @Blobcat and I had to play some of the games a bunch of times just to post a single valid score... Casual users will almost certainly lose patience with it. And that's just bad design; Athlete Kings made better athletics events often with just 1 or 2 buttons.
Literally the only wholesale improvement is that the Equestrian event actually works now; in some of the older ones it was probably the poorest event; at least now it's playable.
It just feels really regressive. The stuff which is missing is glaring in its omission, while the stuff which is new just isn't all that compelling.
I haven't played the story mode yet, admittedly, so I'll spare judgement on that for now. However, my initial impression is not favourable.
Firstly, there are quite large-scale issues which the gaming sites have been talking about. For instance, there's no way to play a series of events, like a Decathlon for instance. Instead, to do a number of events, you have to do an event, then go back to the event selection menu each time - picking your characters too. As the events are short, this can make you feel you're staring at loading screens for much of the game. Then, the explanations for the events, while fine, feel really basic in comparison to the wonderful way Super Mario Party works, and you can't even "practice" after reading the instructions.
I'd be like if, in MarioKart, you couldn't do the GP in multiplayer - you could only do the vs races. So no doing multiple events and having an eventual winner after half an hour.
Each of these features was present in some of the prior titles, so it's kinda bewildering they're left out.
Then you get to some of the more nitty-gritty problems.
They've taken the bizarre decision to make it splitscreen, so for example, when you do the Javelin, you all do the Javelin at the same time, not taking turns, which bucks the trend for Olympics minigame collections. On the one hand, many of the events are the type you'd expect to be simultaneous (the 100m dash, for example) and I presume they desired some symmetry... But personally I think it was a mistake. This also means that the game is 30fps (presumably running in 60 in single-player, though I haven't confirmed that yet).
Then, there are only 3 "dream events", and they're okay, but nothing stellar. Certainly they fall short of the ones on the Canada Winter Olympics title for the Wii, which had more, and those took place in locations actually from prior games (like one of them was on a level from Sonic Adventure 2). I think the Dream Racing takes place somewhere from Sonic Forces, but the fact that I'm uncertain of this is itself a problem.
Finally, to the events themselves... Unfortunately they're a mixed bag. It's great that they've managed to bring in some of the big new events for 2020, such as Karate, Sport Climbing and Skateboarding, but I don't think these should come at the expense of other events. There's no long jump, no high jump, no hammer throw, no shot put, no pole vault... I kinda think any good Olympics game should really feature the main athletics events, and only branch out once they have those covered.
If I'm to theorise... These games have had a speckled history. The first one was mechanically quite bad; the novelty was fresh and it was decent Wii party fare, but as a game it was quite basic and even then, didn't control well due to the Wii waggletastic controls. The later ones improved it, but the London title had the issue that this made it too easy; once you've played the events once or twice, the London one became a game of "whoever screws up loses", rather than "who plays the best wins". I haven't personally played the WiiU one yet, but I think with this 2020 game, they wanted to avoid what happened with the London game, and they've made the controls more nuanced, but not always in the right way.
For example, on the Javelin, you have to throw at a specified "perfect angle" which you do by holding the direction on the analog stick - but there's no onscreen counter to tell you what angle you're at. You also have to throw early enough to avoid stepping over the line for a foul, but the point-of-no-return for this is quite unclear. It does mean that it's unlikely people will perfect it on the third go, and just be able to throw repeatable world record throws, but it also means that the game is kinda nebulous.
In a sense, this is not a party game. @Blobcat and I had to play some of the games a bunch of times just to post a single valid score... Casual users will almost certainly lose patience with it. And that's just bad design; Athlete Kings made better athletics events often with just 1 or 2 buttons.
Literally the only wholesale improvement is that the Equestrian event actually works now; in some of the older ones it was probably the poorest event; at least now it's playable.
It just feels really regressive. The stuff which is missing is glaring in its omission, while the stuff which is new just isn't all that compelling.
I haven't played the story mode yet, admittedly, so I'll spare judgement on that for now. However, my initial impression is not favourable.
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