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As the Olympic games approach, the gaming industry is ready to cash in. No surprise
there, right? But here’s one...this game is not horrible. I mean, it won’t win any
awards, but...it’s not going to get thrown out for doping, either.
That doesn’t make any sense. It’s London 2012 for the PlayStation 3.
Developed by SEGA and just released in anticipation of the Olympic games, London 2012 is a surprisingly
competent collection of surprisingly competent minigames. This obviously begs the question...is
even a competent collection of minigames worth the price of admission? And that depends.
If you’re a big Olympics fan looking for an Olympic video game...you’ll probably
be very pleased with this.
So there are about 40 different events in London 2012 scattered across various categories...track,
field, swimming, diving, the list goes on. There’s even an “other sports” category
for things like table tennis.
Seriously, ping pong is an Olympic event? Who made that decision?
Why not darts, then?
Each event is basically a little minigame...either a condensed form of the real sport or these
streamlined collections of button prompts and quicktime events. The prior can be seen
in a game like ping pong...this is basically a short little game of actual table tennis.
But the button prompts come into play in events like the long jump and the discus. The game
breaks things down into a series of quicktime events, so just push buttons with good timing
to win.
None of the gameplay is thrilling, exactly. But it’s not bad. The minigames do a nice
job of giving you individual goals to focus on during each event. First, you have to work
your speed up. Then, you have to jump at just the right moment or flicking the analog stick
at just the right time. I found myself really trying to find that perfect release point
or hit the best mark...for whatever reason, it just works.
Actually, the problem with London 2012 is less about the games than the structure. Once
again, there’s no career mode or singular journey through the Olympics. This is really
a multiplayer-focused game, which is fine...it’s just, you wonder why they leave single-player
depth out of the equation.
London 2012 won’t appeal to anyone who’s not a fan of the Olympics themselves. Provided
you meet that requirement, however, this is a fairly solid minigame collection, especially
for multiplayer. It’s not winning the gold anytime soon, but London 2012 at least makes
the qualifying round...and if table tennis is an Olympic event, why not minigames?