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- Reviewed on: 01/26/2006
- Released on: 01/24/2006
- Originally published on GameSpot: Torino 2006 - the Official Video Game of the XX Olympic Winter Games (Xbox) Review
Torino 2006 - the Official Video Game of the XX Olympic Winter Games is one of the longest and most unnecessary titles in video game history. And it also happens to be a pretty lousy game, to boot. It's not as if the Olympics, be it summer or winter, has had anything special to call its own when it comes to video game adaptations over the years, but Torino 2006 is especially egregious in that it pares down the number of included events to a fairly measly number, manages to make every single one of them completely uninteresting, and skimps entirely on the presentation. Yes, it's only a $20 game, but that $20 would be better spent practically any other conceivable way.
There are eight different events in Torino 2006. If you're of the optimistic ilk, you might be able to fathom a full 15 events, as there are some rules variations you can make to change how an event plays out. If you're a realist, however, you'll actually discover that there's more like five or six events in the game, since several of them repeat. The luge and the bobsleigh events are mechanically the same, despite being dressed up differently, and cross-country skiing is included in a single event, the biathlon, and the Nordic combined, which also recycles the ski-jumping event. On top of the lack of event variety, there's also very few ways in which to vary things up. The only way you can play this game is via a single event, a series of nine events, a series of 15 events, and a customized competition of whatever available events you want. There is multiplayer for up to four players, but with no online play; and for that matter, none of these events are captivating enough to hold one person's attention, let alone four.
The big, glaring flaw in Torino 2006 is that every single one of these events has been dumbed down to the point of banality. To do the luge or the bobsleigh events, you simply press a button at the right time to set the power of your launch, and from there, you just kind of tap the left analog stick or the directional buttons on your keyboard to steer and keep from hitting the boards. The big difference between the two? In the bobsleigh event, you can also lean left and right. Fun. Alpine skiing is similarly dull in all its forms. You'd think trying to keep a handle on your skier as he or she shoots down a hill, ducking through various gates should be exciting, but it's completely flat and dull here.
The only events that try to do anything marginally interesting are the speed skating and cross-country skiing events. In speed skating, you mash two buttons to build up your initial head of steam, and then rhythmically press and hold those same two buttons back and forth to try and simulate the rhythm of the skating. The cross-country event relies on a stamina meter of sorts that forces you to measure out how much sprinting you can do. These are both relatively interesting mechanics, but neither exactly translates into captivating gameplay, and after a few plays through each event, you're pretty much done with them. In fact, after about 20 minutes of playing, you've seen basically everything this game has to offer.
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