Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsDecent Short Term Distraction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2019
My son was taken with the demo for this and insisted on spending some birthday money on it, despite me trying to encourage him not to, given the lukewarm critical response. Thing is he loves it, because he's never played a title like this before, with a huge amount of content based around simple gameplay concepts like button mashing and timing.
There's a high degree of polish, a large volume of events, the majority of which are fun. There's a story mode, which is very text heavy, which I think is a good thing as it will improve his reading skills - it also has some light educational facts around the olympics as you play. There's also a few 'dream' events which offer a bit more in gameplay, and a selection of 2D retro events. Many events have a bit of a learning curve, but this enhances the longevity as you try and work out the best way to tackle each one. And it shines best during local multiplayer with the whole family joining in.
Of course, many of us have seen it all before, I remember playing Daley's Decathalon, and the gameplay of these kind of titles hasn't evolved much since the early 80s. But for kids, and especially for younger children who have never played this kind of game, it's likely to be a great distraction - with the caveat that it's very expensive given the simple gameplay on offer. You might want to wait till nearer the actual Olympics when it might be available for less, but if it does make it's way into the stockings of some 7-10 year olds this Christmas it is unlikely to disappoint, at least for a few weeks.
