World Sports Competition Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

There won't be many gamers out there that remember this one most likely. World Sports Competition is a game based on the Olympic Games, but without the official license. As to be expected the games are represented as a series of mini-games which you and up to four other friends can take part in. All the usual Olympic events are represented, 18 events in fact, so there is no lack of variety here!

Much like most other Olympic simulations, there's not a whole lot to the gameplay. It's mostly a challenge to see just how fast you can press each of the buttons. World Sports Competition does up the ante a little bit by adding in some interesting game play twists to make things a bit more realistic. One good example is the swimming events. While fast button mashing is involved, the game also requires you to take random breaths in order to keep your oxygen level up. Failure to do so results in loss of strength and speed, which can cost you dearly in these events.

World Sports Competition Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

It's small details like this that at least gives the game a little more challenge and a little less feeling of just randomly pressing buttons. With so many events, there is a pretty steep learning curve in becoming familiar with all of the many events, but once you get it down, the game is actually a lot of fun to play, especially if you have three other people to play with. It's a fun single player experience, but World Sports Competition really shines with multiple players. It's certainly not an overly deep game play experience, but the little extra play control additions do add an extra dimension to the entire package.

Conclusion

On the whole the events all feel a bit uninspired in this game and just go through the motions. If you do want to play a series of sports themed mini-games, we recommend that you wait for something a bit more fun such as California Games or Konami’s classic Track & Field to hit the Virtual Console. For anything other than the biggest Olympic Games fan this isn’t really worth considering, despite doing nothing wrong in particular.