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ESPN International Track&Field
PS2 Preview by: Aaron "bearsfan" Thomas


In an Olympic year, track and field titles are a time a dozen. Good track and field games, whose gameplay involves more than button-mashing, are a bit more rare. Konami has been making quality track and field titles since the days of the NES, and they now bring their talents to the Playstation2. This time around they bring with them the heavy hitting ESPN license, to add more realistic camera angles, and give the game a televised look.

ESPN: T&F offers a wide variety of events for your gaming pleasure, they are:
100 meter dash
Javelin
100 meter freestyle swimming
Weight lifting
Rhythmic gymnastics
Long jump
Trap shooting
High jump
High bar
Pole vault
110 meter hurdles
Hammer throw

Even though Konami does not have the Olympic license, they were able to motion capture several of the top athletes in the world, including 100m record holder Maurice Greene. A replay mode featuring motion-blur is also available to highlight your achievements. Unfortunately the replay is similar to the Dreamcast's Virtua Tennis; so you have no control over the TV style replay.

The gameplay is similar to the series' previous incarnations, but with some additional twists. Sure the sprints focus on tapping the DualShock2's buttons as fast as possible, but the other events are more involved. A new addition to the series this year is Rhythmic Gymnastics. No that was not a typo, if you want to be the best videogame athlete in the world you will have to master this event. Its style is similar to that of Dance Dance Revolution, where you press the buttons in rhythm as they appear on the screen. How well you do this affects your score which will be presented to you by a series of judges. Other events, like the hammer throw and the javelin require you to build up speed by rapidly pressing buttons, but also require well-timed releases to be successful. Release too early and your throw will plummet towards earth a cruel victim of gravity, release too late and someone might mistake your throw for a rocket launch as it heads straight towards the moon.

Even though Olympics have just ended, Konami is banking on Olympic fever to carry this title to the to the best seller list. Those of you with competitive friends will be pleased to know that this title supports the Playstation2's new multitap, so you can humiliate them in Trap Shooting just like you always dreamed. ESPN: International Track and Field will be available on October 26th, and will retail for $49.99




Expected Release Date:
October 26th, 2000

Developer / Publisher:
Konami

Players:
1-4





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