Athens 2004

GameZone

Athens 2004 maybe mostly a button-mashers paradise, but the game is also a great deal of fun. If you like athletic competition on the console systems, this is an easy recommendation.

TotalGames.net

We defy you to get through an entire tournament and still care whether you win or lose, which is about the best summation of Athens 2004 as we're likely to find.

PGNx Media

Casual gamers may want to pick it up also since it is a rather fun party game and even non-gamers can learn the simple controls in a try or two.

GameSpy

It's solid enough, with only minor bugaboos as a single-player game, but it really kicks butt with its multiplay.

Next Level Gaming

There are some things I would have liked to have seen, like using the DDR pad for the whole game, and absolutely no online play. We're in a big online push, and I think this could have been a big thing for this game. But still, it's a solid job.

Gamer.tv

Good multiplayer options will bring out your competitive side, but there are no online modes.

GameSpot AU

An exercise in masochism, as you'll find that the world records within the game are generally easily knocked over. It's only when you can look across the sofa at tired, sore and elated faces and realise that you just lunged over the line at the last second to grasp victory that you'll find Athens 2004 a really worthwhile game.

3DAvenue

The lack of a proper Olympic mode does come as a surprise but is not a major flaw and anyone looking for a solid athletics title with many more sports thrown in could do worse.

AceGamez

Basic controller requirements, repetitive presentation and an incredibly satisfying multiplayer mode add up to a sporting title that fares far better as a party game than a single player experience.

Gamers Europe

The multiplayer offers one of the most addictive and accessible experience since the EyeToy, everyone can play and have fun doing so.

Gaming Illustrated

This was a decent title, and comes highly recommended for kids who love to play with the dance mat.

Gaming Age

It’s a great buy at 40 dollars that will leave you with blistered fingers, bruised egos, and tired muscles.

IC-Games

With a few mates around the house Athens 2004 is still a fantastic multiplayer title.

Game Over Online

A decent Olympics title that’s manages to offer a variety of events while not burning out players by focusing on button mashing mechanics.

Eurogamer

There's little alternative out there if you're hankering after some old-fashioned twitch gaming wrapped up in beautifully presented threads, but our advice is to make sure you've got some mates to play it with first, or it's likely to end up as one of those titles that you'll quickly tire of if you're on your lonesome.

GamerArchive

A game that can only really be recommended to gamers who’ll regularly make use of the multiplayer play.

Yahoo! Games

Assuming you can stomach play sessions that are short by nature, Athens 2004 offers amusing thrills in spurts.

RewiredMind

One for multiplayer action mainly then, but still much, much better than the last few Olympic attempts.

GamePro

The actual variety among the different events is rather low, a problem that stems in large part from the repetitive, button-bashing nature of most events.

games(TM)

It's only the aesthetics that truly let Athens 2004 down. With a clean, unfussy menu system, it's disappointing to find this gives way to rough in-game visuals and limited animation....Nevertheless, the substandard veneer doesn't dim the shine of the gameplay. [Aug 2004, p.113]

RealGamer

Unfortunately the strict timing required can lead to a lot of frustration and as a result the game can quickly start to feel repetitive.

Gamer's Hell

Some events are a lot of fun and will have you pushing hard for that world record that you're so close to, but you'll lose interest in other events in a manner of minutes.

Gamers' Temple

Best enjoyed as a party game when you can gather a few friends together. The lack of depth, repetitive nature, and missing online feature of the game hamper its long-term appeal.

Play Magazine

Expressionless faces, pale skin and similar body types - all of the athletes in the game have a very generic look about them. A little more detail would've made the game that much better. [Sept 2004, p.83]

GameSpot

Athens 2004 certainly looks better than past Olympic Games, but the gameplay itself honestly doesn't improve much on the button mashing and timing-based gameplay that Konami built Track & Field on more than 20 years ago.

Weekly Famitsu

7 / 6 / 6 / 7 - 26 [Vol 816; 6 Aug 2004]

WHAM! Gaming

If you already have a track and field game, Athens 2004 is just more of the same.

Sports Gaming Network

It serves as an adequate time killer (i.e., rental game), even if the gameplay is painfully uninspired and repetitious. Then again, fans of button mashers probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Gaming Nexus

After you get past the glossy menus and the cutesy mascots you have what can best be described as an average track and field experience.

GamerFeed

With a focus on realism, it's very difficult to have fun with Athens unless you have a group of people and a dance pad. Even with some friends and the right accessories, unless you're really into the athletics scene, your overall enjoyment of the title will be hampered.

PSX Nation

Rent it, beat your own high score (or your friends') and move on to the many other far-better sports titles in the PS2 universe.

Edge Magazine

The variety of the controls is overdone, making the game complex and confusing, and there's no customisable multiplayer. Nonetheless, this is a welcoming, capable and entertaining take on what gaming used to mean. [Aug 2004, p.106]

Times Online

Strangely addictive. Your fingers may be hurting and your brain turned off, but the desire to try just once more for a sub-10sec 100 metres will get the better of you.

TotalPlayStation

There's literally no real reason to invest anything more than a 15 minute playthrough in the game.

DarkStation

The single player mode is really missing that premier mode that I only wish was there. If they had a good solid career mode you would have seen a much higher score.

Operation Sports

It is what it is - a simple, easy-to-play party game that can be a riot for multiplayer gaming. It's a fun, hang-around-with-your-friends-and-enjoy-playing-together kind of title. And there's something to be said for that.

Game Informer

This Olympic hopeful loses its flavor after you play through each event just once or twice. [Aug 2004, p.100]

Play.tm

There's also been a lot of confusion in the gymnastics events where obscure controls seem to have alienated less experienced competitors from taking part at all.

PSM Magazine

The execution of individual events is spotty, unpolished, and sometimes very blandly thought out. [Sept 2004, p.26]

Stuff

Athens is Dance Mat compatible, which opens up the potential for some ridiculous four-way group competition. Unfortunately, Olympic events are intrinsically boring.

GameBiz

The disappointing thing about Athens 2004 is the party-style button-mashing gameplay.

Armchair Empire

But at least the dance mat support lends enough to the experience to make it something different and worthwhile -- at least for a rent -- and turns it into a fine workout too.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

To learn how to perform each event, you need to check the directions from the pause menu; what happened to just explaining the mechanics onscreen? [Sept 2004, p.102]

VideoGamesLife

It looks poor, it feels unfinished and there’s almost a sarcastic attitude towards its ridiculous limitations.

GMR Magazine

Competing and breaking records proves to be the main source of excitement, but wearing out your fingers gets old fast. [Sept 2004, p.82]

Total Video Games

To new gamers there is appeal but if you already own a game like this then we are sure it can’t offer you anything new or remotely appealing!

Boomtown

Let’s be brutally honest, the Olympics is nothing more than a repetitive set of action events compressed, in this modern world, into tedious technical fine tuning of human machinery, buoyed only by ancient tradition rather than entertainment value.

Cheat Code Central

This is the kind of game that I would expect to find in a cereal box. At least that way I'd have some cereal to look forward to for the rest of the week.

Official U.S. Playstation Magazine

When I was a kid, I used to play my sister in "Summer Games" on our Apple IIe. In Athens 2004, I discovered that Olympics-type gameplay hasn't evolved one iota in the past 20 years. [Aug 2004, p.93]

1UP

If you have little cousins who don't care what kind of games you buy them, but just enjoy getting new games for their PlayStation 2, this is what you can get them. If you got it for yourself, you'd probably forget you owned it in about a week.

Gamezilla!

Above all, what Athens 2004 fails to do is capture the spirit of the Olympic games.

IGN

If you're playing Athens for an enjoyable gameplay experience, prepare to absorb a sack of bricks to the wrists. If you're looking for something that authentically and accurately represents the Olympics and all of its components, brace yourself for a disappointment impact not at all dissimilar to getting hit in the chest by a semi-truck.

Cinescape

The dance pad support might make for a fun party-game right now while the games are on, but then you also must realize that as far as dance pad games though, this doesn’t even hold a camera to Dance Dance Revolution itself.

Cincinnati Enquirer

The biggest fault of the game is the controls scheme. Alternately pressing the X and O buttons for hours will not only result in cramped and blistered fingers, but a concentrated tiredness of the game.

GamingWorld X

A handful of decent minigames combined with a bunch of absolute stinkers, many of which play identically, doesn’t exactly earn this one the gold.

netjak

Games based on the Olympics have changed very little since the days of Epyx Summer games and Konami’s Track & Field series, and this is not a good thing.

Game Revolution

Athens 2004 might be the least customizable sports game I’ve ever played. You can participate as any one of 64 countries, but you can’t create an athlete. There are no stats, no training, and no career. You pick your country and gender, and the game then just gives you a pre-set runner/jumper/thrower/swimmer who looks the part, ethnically speaking.