Why is there no good olympics game ?

KingDox

KingDox

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A olympics game that played as good as the old Track & Field games would be awsome.


You'd think that when having 4 years to develop a game would give a developer time to put out a quality product. Or that the olympics commity would only licence their product to developer that put out something decent. I wonder if the reasons the developers don't try is they know that their product only has a small window about the size of a month to hype their game before everyone forgets the olympics and moves on.

This is one time I actually wish that EA put out the game. At least then we would have something decent.
 
The one for Dreamcast where you can unlock the silver and gold dudes.....that's a pretty good game that reminds me of EA's Winter Games and the like. Button smashing to the max, best played with friends.
 
[quote name='Stoneage']The one for Dreamcast where you can unlock the silver and gold dudes.....that's a pretty good game that reminds me of EA's Winter Games and the like. Button smashing to the max, best played with friends.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I think your talking about Sports Jam. That game came out really late in the life of the DC. I picked it up in just incase it became rare & I had fun playing it in the arcade.
 
Games for the Olympics are like a lot of movie games. They just throw them out there without any effort because makers of the game just figure the popularity will play off it's real-life counterpart and it will sell good or bad.
 
They're not licensed Olympic games, but Sega has made several decent button mashing sports titles. Decathlete & Winter Heat on the Saturn, Virtua Athlete & Sports Jam on the Dreamcast. All but Sports Jam are included on the recent Decathlete Collection (import) for PS2.
 
I think publishers shy away from Olympic games because they aren't popular with the masses like other sports. Even hockey and soccer games have hardcore niche markets, but it has yet to be proven that an awesome Olympic game would sell well. Publishers don't want to gamble, which I thinik is both the movie and gaming industry's biggest problem.
 
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Look no further... MAME it!
 
i could have sworn i remembered the summer olympics game doing amazing in sales... but I could be wrong...

I'm pretty sure the problem is trying to convert the rather simple and short olympics games into games that are strategic and complex. Most of the time, it will amount to button mashing during the points where the athlete must pic up momentum, and then something that is slightly different.

Let's not forget that there are many games in one box. Because the disc is shared, quality will go down slightly as space becomes scarce.

Finally, events that would actually be really exciting and attract a lot of attention (snowboarding, skiing) will usually have games based on it by itself that are more fun than anything that could be done on a compromised disc.

So, its flaws are all compromising. The olympic events' rules lead to creative compromises, the multiple games lead to hard drive compromises, and the competition means compromises with key events (why put in a crappy snowboarding game when someone only interested in snowboarding will buy SSX instead?)
 
Can't recall any enjoyable Winter Olympics games, but definitely check out Gold Medal Challenge '92 for NES (by Capcom) for the best Summer Olympics game I've played.
 
[quote name='dtarasev']Curling is the best winter Olympic sport ever! I would so buy a game that featured curling![/QUOTE]

Salt Lake City 2002 had curling.
 
I think it like some have already said.
The game is just pushed out...
Other sports game are developed because they have a sales record and tie in with a steady sport.

The Olympics only happens every 4 years, while you could say then that gives lots of time to work on the game and get it ready. But in reality who would take such a huge gamble on a game like that. The ratings for the Olympics on TV are nowhere near what they were before the internet. Before the net you had to wait and watch it to find out what happened, now everything can be found out as it happens so why watch... and therefore as long as the ratings for the Olympics continue to decline, there will only be a "bargin bin" quality game made.
 
[quote name='AlbinoNinja']i could have sworn i remembered the summer olympics game doing amazing in sales... but I could be wrong...

I'm pretty sure the problem is trying to convert the rather simple and short olympics games into games that are strategic and complex. Most of the time, it will amount to button mashing during the points where the athlete must pic up momentum, and then something that is slightly different.

Let's not forget that there are many games in one box. Because the disc is shared, quality will go down slightly as space becomes scarce.

Finally, events that would actually be really exciting and attract a lot of attention (snowboarding, skiing) will usually have games based on it by itself that are more fun than anything that could be done on a compromised disc.

So, its flaws are all compromising. The olympic events' rules lead to creative compromises, the multiple games lead to hard drive compromises, and the competition means compromises with key events (why put in a crappy snowboarding game when someone only interested in snowboarding will buy SSX instead?)[/QUOTE]

You couldn't of said it better. I agree 100% with this.
 
[quote name='GamerChris']Anyone remember Winter Games by Epyx for the Commodore 64? That was some pretty fun stuff.[/QUOTE]
Epyx made the best Olympics games ever. Winter Games, Summer Games and World games all ruled the C64.
 
[quote name='Vegan']Because no one seems to care about the Olympics even when they're going on.[/quote]

Ummm yeah. How old are you? Gotta be under 18 to make such a biased statement.
 
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