On Reflection

Apart from the total controller abuse mentioned below, could we just add that if you’re thinking of playing this online, you can forget it. Amazingly, the only aspect of the game that took any real programming work, the net code, is broken beyond repair, making events such as the long jump, high jump and javelin an unremittingly unfunny joke. Obviously the 1K of data that must be exchanged between remote consoles is enough to break Live. Not.

The Score

This is another one of those ‘how did we ever cope?’ moments. Not for your current correspondent mind, for whom play would have been rendered actually impossible due to his birth one year after its release. We refer, of course, to the quite outrageous level of difficulty that coin-op classics demanded, back in the days when input devices could actually stand rigorous punishment. Wireless, pressure-sensitive pads just weren’t built for the kind of abuse that Track & Field demands of its player, so prepare to break out the superglue or some kind of elaborate vice to keep your gaming on track (boom boom!). Believe it or not, Team X360 had never even seen the high jump event until their XBLA purchase, such was the pittance we earned from scrubbing the shoes of passers-by at the arcade. Child labour aside, our love affair with pressing buttons faster than everyone else was born. Sure enough, things are largely the same here. Though the whole shebang serves to remind us of greater variety provided by the likes of Athlete Kings or even PlayStation follow-up International Track & Field, this is perfect post Guitar Hero/film/booze fare (delete as appropriate). The scourge of retro gaming, turbo button pads, aren’t able to sour the mix nowadays, either. From a technical viewpoint, its enhanced graphics setting does little more than make you feel as if a swift blow to the face has been received, such is the blurring, while enhanced sound will hardly rock anyone’s world. For three quid, though, you could do a lot worse.

7 out of 10