While Mario & Sonic took over for a while, the original Track & Field is probably still the most iconic game themed around Olympic sports. This is quite simply an N64 version of the button-mashing classic, although it has a lovely presentation, with the events looking like a professional sports event being shown on TV. Everything looks pretty good and the transitions are great.

I did, however, find it odd regarding which buttons were chosen to be mashed together - namely C-Left and C-Right rather than two buttons next to each other. It's quite a distance to move your thumb over for repeatedly mashing, especially against the CPU players. You might think about using two thumbs, but even then you need to awkwardly have your finger on the Z button as well. Even mapping the buttons in a few different ways, I failed at absolutely every task due to how difficult the CPU is, coming last in everything except hammer throw, where I came 10th.

Where this game really would have shone was the multiplayer, as now everyone is on a level playing field, feeling the same exertion and RSI as a result of the button combinations needed. There, mistakes can be laughed at more as well, as the game poorly indicates when you need to stop running to make a throw or jump, and the changing camera angles make it even more difficult to judge.

Fun

As a multiplayer laugh-fest, International Track & Field gets the tumbs up. It's incredbly polished - it looks wonderful, running in hi-res with an expansion pak, and the replays (complete with motion blur) are superb. The defiantly 'old-skool' (ahem) gameplay may be the simplest you'll ever experience, but it just goes to show what a winning formula Konami came up with all those years ago - and they've done their legacy proud.

Jes Bickham, N64 Magazine #41. Review Score: 86%

Remake or remaster?

With Mario & Sonic and the latest Tokyo Olympic game, this genre is well covered.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get International Track & Field 2000