Summer Games II (Wii)

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Description

Eight Olympic events feature in this game, and any selection of these can be played at a time. There is no pure sprinting, and only the rowing and cycling can be thought of as pure joystick-waggling. The triple jump involves pressing right to start the hop (before reaching the white line), right again for the step as you land, left as you land for the jump, and then up to propel you through the sand. I high jump, after selecting a height you feel you can clear, you use up and down to control the speed, fire to jump, and then forward to propel you over the bar.

For the javelin even you hold down fire to build up speed, and push left to throw the javelin, holding it left before releasing to change the angle. In the equestrian event, you must use up to increase speed, and fire or right to jump when appropriate to clear the hazards - too many faults will see you disqualified.

Fencing involves moving your foil using the joystick, always staying one step ahead of your opponent, retreating when appropriate. The kayaking event involves navigating a river by controlling the direction, ensuring that all the gates are past correctly even when this requires some precise lining up. You can also load the events from Summer Games 1 in, to play all 16 events in a marathon session.

Screenshots

There are no Wii screenshots for this game.

There are 32 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Part of the Following Groups

• Epyx "Games" series
• Theme: Olympics

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Wii release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

Nintendo Life	Jun 27, 2008		70
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Jun 30, 2008	6 out of 10	60
IGN	Mar 17, 2009	4.5 out of 10	45

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Trivia

1001 Video Games

Summer Games II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Ports

As with the original Summer Games, conversions for Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, ST and Amiga were later made, but only for compilations Gold, Silver, Bronze and Mega Sports.

Technology

Summer Games 2's graphics artist Michael Kosaka used slow-motion video clips of athletes as models for the game's sprites. All C64 sprites are layered, i.e. single-color sprites stacked on top of each other. The track-and-field athlete, for example, consists of seven separate sprites.

Summer Games 2 uses the Vorpal Loader, Epyx' proprietary fastload tool, which loads programs about ten times quicker than usual. The Vorpal Loader was programmed by Scott Nelson, brother of Epyx' technical director Craig Nelson.

Source: Happy Computer magazine #5/86

Awards

• Happy Computer
  • Issue 02/1986 - Best Game in 1985 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Martin Smith