Blast From The Past: Athens 2004

Athens 2004 is probably one of the most fondly remembered athletics games of all time. While the basic formula of the gameplay was similar to most games, the range of events more than compensated for the repetition. While many gamers will complain that games like Athens 2004 involve no skill and pure button-bashing, there is very little that can be done in order to improve the genre.

The most enjoyable part of the Athens 2004 experience was the sheer range of events. Players could choose between a massive number of disciples, ranging from 100 metre sprints to equestrian show jumping or 100 metre freestyle swimming to 1500 metre track running. The game offered players a massive array of events, even though the basic formula was similar for the vast majority of them. My personal favourite event was undoubtedly the long jump, as I had a habit of setting records when playing with my friends.

Another of this game’s strongest features was the ability to design custom competitions, which was excellent for social play. While the game came with a number of preset competition options, it was always more satisfying when you created your own series of events and challenged your family and friends. This is probably the feature I used most when playing, as the single player was never all that entertaining.

Where this came really fell down was with the lack of variation. There may have been a lot of events, but it did still come down to button bashing for the most part. The main differences to this were the archery, skeet, show jumping and distance running, but they were either far too slow (in the case of the archery and skeet) or were too easy to master and set world records in (ala show jumping and distance running).

Regardless of the game’s lack of options, it was still a great game to have in your gaming library for social gaming.