Usually I select the games for these posts using Selectron™, the name I've given the button that controls the code that randomly chooses a game marked with an 'N' in the 'played' column of my game list spreadsheet.
But today I've just finished installing a new 'IPS' screen in one of my Game Boy Colors, so I wanted to play something on that to test it out. There were two options, I flipped a coin, the winner was Konami Winter Games. (Known as Millennium Winter Games in some territories.)
This kind of game has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whether through watching the segments of 'Hypersports' on the TV show 'First Class' in the eighties, wearing out my PS1 controllers on International Track & Field, or taking a break from local multiplayer Gang Beasts marathons for a bout of Sydney 2000; there has never been an era of my gaming life that didn't involve multi-event sports games in one way or another.
It's a genre that appears to be a strange fit for the handheld market, where opportunities for multiplayer gaming have been limited right up until the Switch. As a case in point, this game offers no multiplayer whatsoever - not even of the 'pass-the-controller' variety that would seem to be very little extra effort to include.
A full set of championship events in Konami Winter Games will take you through eight different disciplines - and although some ideas are repeated the variety is still pretty impressive.
Aerials is a single trick event where the difficult of your acrobatics is assigned though the power generated by some proper old fashioned button-mashing in the first phase of the trick, directional input matching makes up the second part, and a well timed single button press for the landing concludes the process.
Half Pipe is very similar, only in this event you have to perform 6 tricks back-to-back as you slide up and down the pipe, with judges scoring each individually.
Speed Skating is, as it has always been in this type of game, rhythm based. Alternating button presses have to be timed perfectly to generate the maximum speed with points awarded based on your lap time.
Bobsled is a top-down time trial, with a button-mashing start to set your initial speed, and, again, points awarded based on your time.
Ski Jumping, despite the basic premise, is one of the more complicated events. The timing of when you start your button-mash sets the wind, the button-mash itself sets your speed and power. Following this a well timed button press is required for launch and constant adjustments to the ski angle are required for the entirety of the jump, including setting up for a nice landing.
Judges points are added to your distance for a final score.
In Giant Slalom you snowboard down the screen weaving between red and blue gates. Along with the very similar Downhill event it's by far the most difficult, and I've yet to finish either. This is due, at least in part, to the small screen size providing very little warning as to the direction the course will take.
With the usual multiplayer focus not an option, this game instead doubles down on difficulty. Of the eight events I've only seen anything like success in Speed Skating which, by absolutely no coincidence whatsoever, is also the simplest.
The presentation is a little basic, even by GBC standards, so I'll be looking elsewhere to really put my new screen through it's paces. The graphics are nice enough but somewhat varied and unspectacular. The sound, although even more limited, also does enough to give you good audio cues when required.
I think with any game like this you have to be pretty pre-disposed to the format before even starting, so it will come as no surprise that, with the genre very much in my gaming blood, I'm having a good time with Konami Winter Games. Each of the events compels me to return and do better in a different way and, thankfully, the inclusion of a battery save means I can track my progress as I do so.
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