Eight Disciplines, 15 Events – Ski Jumping

Ever wanted to soar down this semi-steep hill at ridiculous speeds, jump off at just the right moment, and win a gold medal in under a minute? Now you can, and without four years of pre-Olympic training.

Ski Jumping looks simple on TV and is very easy to get into in this game. One button is all you need to play, plus a little bit of control with the left analog stick. I'm guessing anyone who can use a mouse can use a thumb stick in this scenario, but who knows? Stranger things have happened. The goal is to keep the jumper steady while going down the hill. A small, circular indicator at the bottom of the screen tells you if you're leaning too far to the left or right. Lightly tap the stick left and right to keep the jumper moving forward, then when the game tells you to, press the X button to jump off the edge. The indicator will tell you when you should jump by filling with a solid color; jump when it's just about full and you'll be all set. 

Speed Skating

Speed Skating and relay races are the quintessential Olympic mini-games. They follow the same rule: the X and circle buttons are your friend. Tap them repeatedly, one after the next (X-circle-X-circle, not X-X-circle-circle) and your skater will charge across the ice like a hockey player during an overtime shootout. You have to do this very quickly.

Alternating between buttons with your thumb is pretty tough, so most gamers (myself included) conquer these mini-games by using my index and middle finger. It's almost more challenging that way because you have to learn to build resistance with those fingers since they're not used to performing this kind of a move. In the long run it allows you to go faster.

Once the initial takeoff speed has been reached, you have to press the X and circle buttons to create somewhat of a perfect rhythm. However long the X button is held, the circle button must be held for that same amount of time when you press it. This is cool, but there's one problem: until you get to the point where you can play without watching the button meter at the bottom (which tells you how long you've held down each button), you're going to spend the whole time staring at the bottom of the screen. You'll miss all the visuals: victory, defeat, and crashes with Apollo Ono. Just kidding on that last part.

Alpine Skiing

Decent controls and an easy-to-learn control style are the high points of this mini-game. X (start game; tuck position) and square (carve turns) are the only buttons used. Steering is pretty easy too. I wish it were longer and more involved. Like all the mini-games in Torino 2006, Alpine Skiing is over in a few minutes or less. Excessive repetitiveness will prevent you from wanting to extend its length with repeated plays. 

Cross-Country Skiing

Who doesn't want to ski cross-country? This mini-game could've rocked the house. I think the "could've" in that last sentence says it all, but I'm going to clarify it anyway: Cross-Country Skiing is a disaster. You don't have the luxury of gauging success by tapping buttons. This game tries to be clever by placing a different circle indicator on the bottom of the screen. The circle fills up green until it reaches the fatigue point. The fatigue point changes based on how well you're skiing, which is determined by how well you avoid the fatigue point. Confused? Hang onto your snowshoes, it gets worse: if you persist and hold down the X button during the fatigue point, it'll turn red, which is a danger zone. Now your skier is slow, sluggish, and feeling very tired. So you ease off, you take a breather. Now he's not moving much at all! But that's what needs to be done to bring the fatigue point down. Look, it's down, I can start holding X again! Oh great, now I'm at the fatigue point, time to release...

Biathlon

Cross-Country Skiing plus the element of shooting. Five targets, two shooting check points, and hardly anymore excitement than the previous mini-game.

The gameplay, if you must know, is like a stationary FPS without the axis inverted. Shoot the five holes as fast as you can and start skiing again. I'm sure it's much more exciting in real life, and could've been here if the core gameplay (skiing) hadn't stunk like a skunk.

Nordic Combined

Oh joy, more Cross-Country Skiing. This time it's combined with Ski Jumping. Again, it could've been great. Why put so much emphasis on the weakest part of the video game (skiing)?

Bobsleigh / Luge

I'm combining these two because they're both very similar. In fact, the only gameplay difference is that the bobsleigh is slightly harder to control. It has a weight shift feature (L1 and R1 buttons) to compensate, though I rarely felt the need to use it. I still won, and when I didn't I didn't care.

What do these eight mini-games, good or bad, have in common (besides being short and overly simplistic)? The fun, if any exists, is extremely limited. Torino 2006 doesn't feel like a game. It doesn't look much like one either. I think it's interesting how the game updates player progress with screen info the same way NBC does during the actual games. That's a minor detail when compared to gameplay, which never fails to prevail. Therefore if a game lacks in that department, it isn't going to last very long. I had hoped that Torino 2006 would be the first to break the mold – the first to take home the gold medal. I'd start hoping for better in 2008 and 2010, but after two decades of bad Olympic games, I don't think you can fault me for having doubts.

Gameplay: 5
Either it's boring, confusing and frustrating, or it's over too fast. Torino 2006 is an almost game in some respects. The Apline Skiing mini-game is almost a winner. On the other hand, the Cross-Country Skiing mini-games are anything but. If this were the first Olympic game ever developed I could see where they were coming from, but let's face the facts: this is a recycled version of every Olympic game released. Where's the depth, the innovation, the new gameplay features? It plays a little too much like – what was the last game called again? I can't remember. And something tells me that by the time the next Olympic game arrives, I won't remember the name of this one either.

Graphics: 5
Lifelike isn't a word I'd use to describe Torino 2006. The colors are bland, the backgrounds are dated, the animation is stiff -- it doesn't make sense. The gameplay is so basic you'd think the visuals would pop right out, attracting millions of casual players all across the world. I guess I overestimated its potential.

Sound: 5

Difficulty: Easy
You can't get more mainstream than this. Torino 2006 is the kind of game Grandpa could play even if he's computer illiterate and does not understand why there are "X" and "square" buttons on the PS2 controller. If Grandpa can comprehend that when a symbol appears he should press the corresponding button, he can play Torino. Same goes for five-year-olds.

Concept: 5
Torino 2006 would be a conceptually interesting game if it weren't for its identical predecessors. Since the early 90s, there has yet to be a single Olympic video game released that created its own path. They're all essentially the same: mini-games where you press buttons as their symbols appear on-screen. The slight differences do nothing to enhance the experience.

Multiplayer: 4
What's worse than being bored when you're alone? Being bored with three friends (who are now mad at you because you're the one who caused the boredom).

Overall: 5
Torino 2006 is not a bad game per se; it's not much of a game at all. Eight disciplines and fewer than 20 events, each of which is over in a couple minutes or less. Increasing the difficulty rating doesn't really make them more challenging, just more frustrating. If there was any amount of depth to these events, anything exciting, any redeemable, unforgettable element at all, I could hang on that for a bit. But there's nothing worth hanging onto. Nothing that makes this worth a rental, and certainly nothing worth the purchase price.