"Track & Field" - NES/Famicom
AKA - Hyper Olympic + Hyper Sports
They proceed in order from whichever one you pick as your first one, so for simplicity's sake, I picked the first one first. Makes sense, no?
Most of the games consist of mashing the A button as fast as you can until you eventually have to hit the up button, so let's talk about all those first.
The 100-meter dash is just mashing A repeatedly.
The 110-meter hurdles event is mashing A repeatedly, but pressing up to jump over hurdles.
The long jump is mashing A repeatedly until you eventually hold up for a second and release at the ideal angle to get the best jump.
The javelin throw is the long jump but with a javelin.
The high jump is the long jump but with height instead of length.
The triple jump is the long jump three times in a row.
So there you go, you're caught up. Let's talk about the other... two!
Skeet shooting is a little harder than most of the above (although the high jump is probably the hardest of all...). In this game, A controls shooting to the right, while left on the d-pad controls shooting to the left. You have to shoot the clay pigeons as they're launched left or right across the screen by pressing the respective button when they enter each of your two aiming areas.
It gets really fast, and it can be tough to keep up. It took me a couple tries to make a qualifying score. If you can get a long enough combo, eventually the game will launch a blue clay pigeon worth 500 points and then you're really in the money.
Last up is archery, which consists of a target sliding past you, which you have to shoot at for a bullseye. The further inside the target you get, the more points you get (as you might suspect). Complicating things a little is a wind element, which can push your arrow slightly, also the amount of time you hold the up or A button decides the angle at which you shoot when you let go.
Clever use of both of these things will get you the points you need to qualify, eventually, you clever person, you.
Anyway, once you complete all the events, that's pretty much it. Feel free to try again, or tackle the expert mode if you feel brave.
Probably a better idea would be to make some friends and play it against them, because I'm sure it more fun that way.
Intuitive Design:
I can't say any of them are that rewarding, but maybe beating your friends at them would be. Probably the most fun I had was the skeet-shooting event, which is both challenging and satisfying, kinda like the clay-pigeon shooting mode in Duck Hunt.
There's not that much difficulty here, other than the high jump being tough to beat. I didn't try the expert mode but I bet it probably is pretty challenging, because of course it would be.
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Depth:
There's 8 events and once you finish them, you can either play again or put the cartridge back on the shelf.
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----- Introduction -----
Oh boy, Track & Field. This game is pretty much the ultimate test of how fast you can press buttons on a controller, in my mind. I wonder what else there is to know about it...
Well, it's actually a port of two arcade games, also called Hyper Olympic and Hyper Sports in Japan, the former of which actually had an official license for the 1984 Summer Olympics when it came out in 1983. This game seems to sport most of the content from the originals.
In Japan, this actually released as two separate cartridges, with four of the games in each (if I understand Wikipedia correctly). The first four events are included on Hyper Olympic, and the latter four events are included on Hyper Sports. But since we're cool, late release Americans, we get all 8 events on one cartridge.
A fun fact: our buddy Ken Shimura from the previous review (Kato-chan Ken-chan) was involved with a TBS sponsored show called 8時だョ!全員集合 ("It's 8 o'clock! Everyone Gather Around" or something like that, or if you like you can call it "Hachiji dayo! Zenin Shuugou"), and for that show a special cart was created of Hyper Olympic which changes the 1P sprite to a feudal lord.
There's not really much else I can think to say about this game, so let's just play it shall we?
Well, it's actually a port of two arcade games, also called Hyper Olympic and Hyper Sports in Japan, the former of which actually had an official license for the 1984 Summer Olympics when it came out in 1983. This game seems to sport most of the content from the originals.
In Japan, this actually released as two separate cartridges, with four of the games in each (if I understand Wikipedia correctly). The first four events are included on Hyper Olympic, and the latter four events are included on Hyper Sports. But since we're cool, late release Americans, we get all 8 events on one cartridge.
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| We also don't have to buy one of these things just to play an Olympics game, which I consider a plus. |
A fun fact: our buddy Ken Shimura from the previous review (Kato-chan Ken-chan) was involved with a TBS sponsored show called 8時だョ!全員集合 ("It's 8 o'clock! Everyone Gather Around" or something like that, or if you like you can call it "Hachiji dayo! Zenin Shuugou"), and for that show a special cart was created of Hyper Olympic which changes the 1P sprite to a feudal lord.
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| Now this is comedy. |
There's not really much else I can think to say about this game, so let's just play it shall we?
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| This is the most patriotic title screen I've ever seen. |
----- Playthrough -----
Track & Field consists of a Game A and B (novice and expert, according to the manual), and of 8 events:
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| Yeah, look, you can read, I don't need to list them. |
They proceed in order from whichever one you pick as your first one, so for simplicity's sake, I picked the first one first. Makes sense, no?
Most of the games consist of mashing the A button as fast as you can until you eventually have to hit the up button, so let's talk about all those first.
 |
| Yes, these. |
The 100-meter dash is just mashing A repeatedly.
The 110-meter hurdles event is mashing A repeatedly, but pressing up to jump over hurdles.
The long jump is mashing A repeatedly until you eventually hold up for a second and release at the ideal angle to get the best jump.
The javelin throw is the long jump but with a javelin.
The high jump is the long jump but with height instead of length.
The triple jump is the long jump three times in a row.
So there you go, you're caught up. Let's talk about the other... two!
 |
| Guns!? Now we're getting somewhere. |
Skeet shooting is a little harder than most of the above (although the high jump is probably the hardest of all...). In this game, A controls shooting to the right, while left on the d-pad controls shooting to the left. You have to shoot the clay pigeons as they're launched left or right across the screen by pressing the respective button when they enter each of your two aiming areas.
It gets really fast, and it can be tough to keep up. It took me a couple tries to make a qualifying score. If you can get a long enough combo, eventually the game will launch a blue clay pigeon worth 500 points and then you're really in the money.
Last up is archery, which consists of a target sliding past you, which you have to shoot at for a bullseye. The further inside the target you get, the more points you get (as you might suspect). Complicating things a little is a wind element, which can push your arrow slightly, also the amount of time you hold the up or A button decides the angle at which you shoot when you let go.
Clever use of both of these things will get you the points you need to qualify, eventually, you clever person, you.
 |
| I honestly have so much faith in you. |
Anyway, once you complete all the events, that's pretty much it. Feel free to try again, or tackle the expert mode if you feel brave.
Probably a better idea would be to make some friends and play it against them, because I'm sure it more fun that way.
----- Review -----
Innovation:
Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?
I guess this entire concept is new on the Famicom. There's never been an Olympics game so far, even if the original arcade game is now a couple years old. There have been other sports games, but not Olympics! And that's entirely different!
The whole "mash button and hold button for angle" thing is also pretty unique to this game. You'll see it other places occasionally through the years (it reminds me a little of Nanaca Crash...) but not a ton. And not to this point, on the Famicom.
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I guess this entire concept is new on the Famicom. There's never been an Olympics game so far, even if the original arcade game is now a couple years old. There have been other sports games, but not Olympics! And that's entirely different!
The whole "mash button and hold button for angle" thing is also pretty unique to this game. You'll see it other places occasionally through the years (it reminds me a little of Nanaca Crash...) but not a ton. And not to this point, on the Famicom.
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Intuitive Design:
How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?
I think you'll probably figure it out after you try each event once. If you just press every button, I pretty much guarantee you'll get it.
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Gameplay / Difficulty:
How rewarding does playing the game feel?
I can't say any of them are that rewarding, but maybe beating your friends at them would be. Probably the most fun I had was the skeet-shooting event, which is both challenging and satisfying, kinda like the clay-pigeon shooting mode in Duck Hunt.
There's not that much difficulty here, other than the high jump being tough to beat. I didn't try the expert mode but I bet it probably is pretty challenging, because of course it would be.
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Depth:
How deep/long is the game?
There's 8 events and once you finish them, you can either play again or put the cartridge back on the shelf.
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Design:
How's the sound? How are the graphics?
The graphics look pretty good, and are reminiscent for me of the weird fluid animation you saw from Activision in Atari 2600 games. There's a lot of frames of animation for the sprites in all the running events. It's weird, but definitely an iconic look.
The sound is serviceable. The only music we get in the US version is an NESified version of the Chariots of Fire theme, which is both amusing and kind of annoying after you hear it a few times.
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| Behold the many frames of-- wait, that's not a gif. |
The sound is serviceable. The only music we get in the US version is an NESified version of the Chariots of Fire theme, which is both amusing and kind of annoying after you hear it a few times.
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Personal Chord:
Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?
No. I don't really care that much about The Olympics and I don't really enjoy the game that much, however it has earned its place in gaming history. I just can't really say I want to personally rep it...
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Should You Play:
Is there a reason to even bother with this one?
Probably not. I think in Japan it was an excuse to sell a peripheral, and in the US it was probably neat and all at the time but the button mashing thing really is not what I would say holds up as "good gameplay" in 2019. So maybe no. It might still be fun to compete with your friends in, though.
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Did you try all the different ways of mashing the buttons? Spoon, ruler, cheaty af turbo controller?
ReplyDeleteOnly regular human being button mashing
Delete... spoon?