Virtua Athlete 2000

Virtua Athlete 2000 brings track and field action to the Deamcast right in time for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics

Agetec's entry into the Dreamcast Olympic Arena is Virtua Athlete 2000. Developed by Hit Maker, the same group that produced the excellent Virtua Tennis, Virtua Athlete takes Dreamcast gamers on a quest for gold in seven Olympic track and field events.

Sydney Fever
Virtua Athlete 2000 lets you compete against the computer or up to three other friends in seven events: the long jump, high jump, 100 meter dash, 110 meter hurdles, shot put, 1500 meter race, and javelin. You can completely customize your character (as long as he's male; you can't pick a female character), giving him different outfit patterns, glasses, shoes, and even wristbands.

Overall, Virtua Athlete's gameplay is a bit simple, and the execution is decent, but the game lacks depth. You're given a quick, but very helpful, tutorial in each event before competition, showing the best angle for release and the button timing. The controls are responsive, and the graphics are quite good with very smooth animations and simple but effective textures. In some events, the camera angle changes, making it harder to judge distance and angle, and that's a knock against gameplay. In addition, there really should be a full ten decathlon events in the game; seven leaves you feeling hungry for more variety.

Jock Itching
By focusing on fewer events than Sydney 2000, Virtua Athlete crosses the finish line ahead in graphics and gameplay, but gets cut short on the variety. Even so, Virtua Athlete 2000 goes home with silver, not gold.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment