''Sydney 2000'' is the official

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

of the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, hosted by

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2000. Developed by

Attention to Detail Attention to Detail Ltd (ATD) was a British video game developer based in Hatton. Founded by University of Birmingham graduates in September 1988, it was acquired by Kaboom Studios in January 1997. The studio shut down in August 2003 due to f ...

and published by

Eidos Interactive Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

, it was released for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and Dreamcast. There were versions developed for the Nintendo 64 and

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

, but both versions were cancelled.

Events

100 m sprint The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

110 m hurdles The 110 metres hurdles, or 110-metre hurdles, is a hurdling track and field event for men. It is included in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympic Games. The female counterpart is the 100 metres hurdles. As part of a racing event, ten hurd ...

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...

(F) *

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as w ...

* Triple Jump *

High Jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

(F) *

Skeet shooting Skeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity where participants use shotguns to attempt to break clay targets which two fixed stations mechanically fling into the air at high speed and at a variety of angles. Skeet is one of the t ...

* Super Heavyweight Weight Lifting * 100 m Freestyle Swimming (F) * 10 m Platform Diving (F) * Chase Cycling * Kayak K1 Slalom

Playable nations

Up to 32 countries were available to be played on the game. They are: *

* Belgium * Brazil * Canada *

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

* Denmark * Finland * France * Great Britain * Germany * Greece * Hungary * India * Israel * Italy *

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

* Kenya * South Korea * Mexico * Netherlands * Norway * New Zealand * Poland * Portugal * Russia * South Africa * Singapore * Spain *

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

* United States of America

Gameplay

Although the button mashing-laden gameplay has not changed from previous games, the main competition itself become more complex with the inclusion of the Virtual Gym and a complete Olympics qualifying tour, composed by four stages, and the player can only run for the medals of the events they qualified for. While some of the events are the women's, each event is only set to one gender: it is not possible to run the women's 100 m hurdles or the men's high jump. Individually, there is not much difference in gameplay from previous games: two action buttons control speed a third performs an extra action, such as jumping, passing a hurdle, setting the angle and releasing the hammer or javelin, or touching the wall. All events rely on this formula, except Skeet, K1 Slalom, and diving (which uses "click-a-long" rather than the freeform jumping of '' Olympic Gold''). Chase Cycling also requires pacing by the player, or the final cyclist will run out of long pace before the final sprint. The biggest difference from previous games in the series lies in the Olympic mode: instead of starting in the Olympics, the player must improve and qualify an athlete for the event. Each event has four stages (Open Trials, Invitation Event, The Championship, and Olympic Class), and for each stage the player must complete minigames in the Cyber Gym that range from running on a treadmill, climbing a pole, squats or reaction training, for a total of 20 minigames. Completing a Cyber Gym game improves the athlete in one of the three ratings temporarily, and to earn the new capacities definitively, the athlete must complete an event with a certain score. After the player is happy with the athlete's development, they can try to qualify for the next stage by running against other athletes at the same level. Although it is possible to compete in the Olympics as soon as the athlete reaches the Olympic Class, to get a perfect athlete (with 100% on all ratings) one must complete all minigames, including those on Olympic Class. As the game relies mostly on athletes' ratings, even players with lower button presses per minute can make World Record times without serious effort as long as they passed all the mini games. Other modes include an arcade mode, training and head to head, where two players can compete with their Olympic mode trained athletes. There are four difficulty levels. Although generally stable, the game lacks tweaking in some events: the High jump uses men's results, and while some events such as the 100 m sprint and triple jump are quite easy, others such as the javelin and hammer throw require much training.

Reception

''Sydney 2000'' received "mixed" reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the Dreamcast and PlayStation versions were ported for release and published by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

on 26 October 2000, '' Famitsu'' gave it a score of 27 out of 40 for the former, and 26 out of 40 for the latter. ''GameZone'' gave the PC version a score of nine out of ten and said, "The graphical quality of this program makes it a sure-fire winner. What it lacks in some areas, it makes up for in others. If you are a fan of Olympic-style action, this is a must-have." However, ''

Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'' gave it one-and-a-half stars out of five and said that it was "a prime example of a game that should have stayed where it belonged--on the consoles," and that the game "simply isn't much fun; most of the time, it isn't any fun at all. It feels more like work than a good time and that's never a good recipe for success." '' Edge'' gave the Dreamcast and PC versions each a score of seven out of ten, saying that the game was "as faithful an exponent of he key-bashing dynamicas any of ''

Decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

''s distant children." Colin Williamson of '' PC Gamer US'' criticised the button mashing-gameplay and frustration game control of the latter version, and stated, "All in all, ''Sydney''s quality is disturbingly inconsistent, and there are, sadly, more bad games than good in this particular collection. If you want to recreate the Olympic experience, break into the local high school track and run a few laps, or hop into the La-Z-Boy with a big tub of popcorn and leave it to the

professionals A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

." Kevin Rice of '' NextGen'' called the former version "A weekend rental at best. It's somewhat amusing to relive childhood memories of the local arcade, but the game's lack of depth and repetitive game mechanics grow old quickly." Cheat Monkey of ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' said of the PlayStation version, "If you're hankering for some Olympic competition and want to go beyond the standard track and field events, ''Sydney 2000'' is a decent pick. It's not a gold medal winner, but it finishes the PlayStation invitational with a bronze." He then said of the Dreamcast version, "Overall, ''Sydney 2000'' for the Dreamcast is a better game than the PlayStation version in more ways than one, but it's still held to a bronze medal finish in the sports games category. If you've got Olympic fever, ''Sydney 2000'' will carry the torch for you, but only so far." Brian Wright, however, said of the PC version, "It seems that as long as computers continue to exist, companies will continue to release decathlon-style games. The button-mashing game mechanics may appeal to novice gamers or those on a nostalgia kick, but the familiar and repetitive gameplay means that ''Sydney 2000'' doesn't get the gold."

Notes

References

External links

* {{Attention to Detail 2000 Summer Olympics 2000 video games Attention to Detail games Cancelled Game Boy Color games Cancelled Nintendo 64 games Capcom games Dreamcast games Eidos Interactive games Summer Olympic video games PlayStation (console) games Video games scored by Allister Brimble Video games set in 2000 Video games set in Australia Video games set in Sydney Windows games BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for Best Games winners Video games developed in the United Kingdom