Vancouver 2010

To get into the spirit of the 2010 Vancouver 2010â„¢ Olympic games, I thought I’d best take a look at the official app by RealArcade and give you all the inside story.

Upon first look at this game, it looks very similar to Playman Track & Field which is on sale also for 59p/$0.99. I then realised the game basically IS Playman Track & Field, but with a “winter” theme. As with Playman Track & Field, there are 5 Main events to play:

First up is Cross Country, his is cross country on ski’s. To go faster, you tap the circles on the screen as and when they appear. This is a bit tricky to do as first and good reaction times help. Second is the Short Track 500M, in this event you are sprinting on ice skates. I personally think this is one of the harder of  the events. you touch and hold the circles until they turn green (or don’t go past 12’o’clock to sprint faster. Third is the Snowbard cross, her you just tilt the device left and right to steer your player racing downhill snowboarding.

The Fourth event is the Biathlon, the first part is like the cross country event where you go faster by tapping the circles as they appear, then you grind to a halt to start shooting. As the arrows appear in the targets you select the corresponding arrow to hit the target. If you miss, you lose 15 seconds! Then you repeat it! In my opinion, this one’s the most fun.

Finally we have Freestyle Moguls, this event involves you doing a slalom downhill on ski’s. You build your speed up by tapping the circles on each side of the screen (again, like cross country) until you reach the start of the jump where you hold down the button till it turns green.

You can choose to play these events individually or you can choose the last option on the main menu to play “Olympic Games” which are ALL 5 events listed above played in random order with more opponents.

Unfortunately I’m disappointed to say the game does not include online leader-boards which would have made an absolutely fantastic addition as everyone all over the world could compete for the records. It’s a real shame, also people expecting to have a Facebook connect in Vancouver 2010â„¢ will also be disappointed as there is no option to do that unlike Playman Track & Field.

The Multi-player feature in Vancouver 2010â„¢ is a simple “Pass & Play”. Players take turn in completing an event and all the players can compare their scores at the end. No Bluetooth or WiFi real-time multi-player I’m sad to say.

The in-game graphics are 2D, very arcade style, simple to look at and run at a good frame rate and overall pleasing to look at. They are not spectacular in any way, but very much suited to the nature of the game.

Each event has different controls, some can be very difficult to master, I’ve realised I need very good reaction time to “flow” with the controls and this may infuriate some gamers. After playing for an hour or so I soon got better at each event and was starting to enjoy myself.

I do feel somewhat disappointed with this game. I would have expected something better for the “official” app of Vancouver 2010â„¢. For those gamers who love Playman Track & Field and want the Vancouver 2010â„¢ edition to get into the spirit, then go for it! Personally for new gamers, I would try Playman Track and Field first. It’s cheaper and there are the same amount of events (just not winter ones!). But I feel confident that this game is likely to occupy for the duration of the Winter Olympics, but of course nothing beats the real thing!