International Track & Field was first developed by Konami (KCEO) in 1996, but was updated for a wide spectrum of platforms in 1999-2000. The game saw releases on Dreamcast, PlayStation 1 & 2, N64 and GameBoy Color.
However. The games weren't exactly the same between platforms. For example the N64 version had Breaststroke and the PS version had 50m Freestyle swimming, while these events aren´t available on the Dreamcast version.
In this Dreamcast version you compete in 12 different events such as 100-meter dash, long jump, high jump, pole vault, hammer throw, 110-meter hurdles, javelin throw, weightlifting, pommel horse vault, triple jump and trap shooting. The gameplay is typical of most Track & Field games: you must alternately press two buttons to build speed or strength, and then hit a third button to perform the required action for the event.
If you are curious on how the game is played, we have included the tutorial for all events during practice. It's the first half of the video.
Every contest can be practiced in the Practice mode, or you can compete against friends or AI players in the Championship mode.
We recently took a look at Sega Sports own Virtua Athlete 2K and one of that games issues were that it was way to easy. It was so easy that it almost felt like an interactive movie.
International Track & Field, on the other hand, is hard as nails. Not only are the sports more techically difficult to master. You have to press those buttons as a bat on fire out of hell to not finish last.
We wish that we could have made this video a little bit longer, but we physically couldn't play any more. We simply didn't have any more strength in our lower arms to play another round.
All in all it's a nice game. It looks fairly good (better than Virtua Athlete in most aspects) but it's too hard for a party game and too shallow to compete with modern track & field games. But it's still worth checking out if you are into button mashers.
25 авг 2024
