Reviewed: August 18, 2007
Released: August 8, 2007
Back in 1983 I was a young track athlete. I was fast. Very fast. So naturally when my friends and I went to the mall and found Konami’s Track and Field, my wallet took a beating… and so did the buttons on that awesome machine.
I loved that game. Over the years, Track and Field and various incarnations made it to just about every console system. Some were good… but most were poor imitations.
So when rumors starting going around about Konami’s Track & Field coming to Xbox Live Arcade, I was thrilled! Months went by without a word from Konami or Microsoft. But the day has finally arrived.
This is for the most part, a straight conversion of the original arcade game. Digital Eclipse made a few tweaks to make it more XBLA friendly, like adding leaderboards and achievements. But this is faithful to the original right down to the bugs.
One of my biggest concerns when I first heard about Track & Field coming to XBLA was how they would handle the controls. In the arcade, there were standard round buttons that we just beat on. The faster you hit the buttons, the faster your guy goes.
The problem, even back in 1983, was these things are just not made to take the kind of abuse hardcore gamers can dish out. By 1984 Konami had replaced the standard buttons with new ones that had guards over the top portion. They hurt when you hit them – especially if your technique had your fingers pointed down, which opened yourself up to major fingernail damage.
On the Xbox 360 version, you use the X and B buttons to run, and the A button to jump/throw. You can also use the left analog stick to run (which works much better).
You can remap the controls to other buttons or sticks, but in my experience the A-B-X-Y buttons are not made for rapid fire. They just don’t work well for fast running. Using the left stick to run is by far the preferred method. Just be prepared… to run fast, you will be moving the left stick as fast as you can, left to right, over and over, faster and faster. I suspect there are quite a few broken controllers. Mine is already rattling.
The basic idea of the game is to compete in 6 track events. In each event you have to meet a certain goal to move on to the next event. What really made this a great game was the capability to play up to 4 people at a time. Track and Field was probably the first game I played that gave me a genuine sense of competition with other players.
There are 6 events with different skills needed to win. There are a total of three rounds which each event having more difficult goals that must be met to keep playing. The goals after 3 rounds remain the same, so once you figure out the events you have it made in round 4 and beyond.
The events include:
100 Meter Dash – one chance to run as fast as possible. Move the left stick left and right as fast as you can. If players one and two finish with the exact same time, you both get 1,000 bonus points. Times needed:
Long Jump – three chances to jump as far as possible. Run to the take-off board, and hold down the jump button until the best jump angle is achieved (45 degrees is optimal). If you do all three jumps at exactly the same length, you get 1,000 bonus points.
Minimum jump distance needed:
Javelin – run to the line and throw a big stick as far as possible. As with the long jump, you hold down the A button until the best angle is achieved. This is the one event that seems to vary for ideal throw angles. Most people say 42 degrees is the best, but I’ve thrown over 90 meters with many angles in the 40’s. Throwing a non-foul at 80 degrees will kill a bird off the top of the screen and you’ll get 1,000 bonus points. Note: as with the original arcade game, there is a bug when throwing over 100 meters. If you throw 100m10, it will register as 0m10 and you won’t qualify for the next event. So the online leaderboards don’t really reflect who has the longest throw.
Throw distances needed:
110M Hurdles – jump over hurdles while you are running 110 meters as fast as you can. If both players finish with the same time, you both get 1,000 bonus points.
Times needed to advance:
Hammer Throw – Three chances to hurl a hammer as far as possible. The athlete will spin faster and faster until you press A to release the hammer. The best angle is 45 degrees. Once again, there is a bug when throwing over 100 meters. If you throw 100m10, it will register as 0m10 and you won’t qualify for the next event. So again, the online leaderboards don’t really reflect who has the longest throw.
Throw distances needed to qualify for the next event:
High Jump – three chances to jump over a bar. The athlete will run to the bar, you press the A button to jump, as he moves closer to the bar, tap A again to get in the ideal position, and hold A to move him into the cushion. If you foul the first two jumps, then clear the third, you’ll get 1,000 bonus points.
Heights needed to qualify for the next round:
Xbox Live provides some of the best competition for Track and Field. Your high scores will be saved on the Xbox Live Leaderboards. The major drawback to playing on Xbox Live is way the player rooms are set up.
If you host a game, you are basically stuck with whoever enters the room – even if their connection is terrible. You can’t kick people out of your room. Don’t even bother hitting the ready button if you have anyone in the ‘red’ connection zone. The game slows down to the point where it is almost unplayable.
Also there is a major problem with the way wins and losses are scored. If you go into someone’s room and beat everyone, you likely will not get to continue playing. Once the host leaves, the game is over.
Once the host quits, a bigger problem is revealed. Once the host quits it’s basically blind luck for who gets credit for a win. Often I will be on top of the points and leading the current event when the host quits. Yet I end up ranked 2nd or 3rd so it registers as a loss in my online rankings. This should never have been released with a simple bug like this. It doesn’t affect the gameplay, but it certainly affects my overall feeling after playing. Hopefully this will be one of the few XBLA games to have an update.
I still find it amazing that I used to think these old arcade graphics were good. They never seem to live up to my memory of the experience playing in the arcades. But as reality came crashing in, the fact is these are the real graphics.
You have the choice between the original graphics or enhanced graphics. The original graphics are almost disturbing. While faithful to the original game, having them blown up on my 50” HDTV really shows the pixels in all their 256x224 glory.
Thankfully, Digital Eclipse did a nice job smoothing some things over and enhancing the graphics to make it a more palatable experience. The enhanced graphics smooth out the grass textures and make the smoke from the starter pistol and long jump landing look a lot nicer. They also smoothed out some player textures.
Again, you can choose between the original and enhanced versions. The original is what really brings back the memories. The “enhanced” is basically the same sounds with reverb/echo added so it sounds like you are in a stadium.
One item of note, the original arcade game had the theme from the film “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis. It is mysteriously absent from this port of Track & Field. I would assume we can once again chalk this one up to the high cost of music licensing. But oddly enough, they didn’t even try to do some knockoff version.
Track and Field only costs 400 Microsoft Points (about $5), which is a great deal for some multi-player fun. There are 12 achievements available for 200 points. The vast majority of them can be easily unlocked during the course of playing the game. The most difficult achievement is “Perfection” where you must qualify on every individual attempt in the first 6 events.
While you never really ‘beat’ the game, you get a free life every 100,000 points. So at some point you will find yourself with so many free lives that it becomes a chore to continue. After 5 rounds and 4 free lives, there was no end in sight for me. Once you get the patterns down, it’s pretty easy to rip right through the entire six events without loosing.
The real fun is playing on Xbox Live or at home with friends. The multi-player competitive aspect of this game is unmatched for an arcade game. Just make sure you set some money aside to buy new controllers, as this game will cause damage.
Overall I’m very pleased with this game. It’s faithful to the original while adding better graphics. While I certainly got my moneys worth, the shelf life on this is pretty limited. I’m very competitive and have loved this game since I was in high school. This is one of the few XBLA games that I’ve continued to play after the first week. But for most people, once you’ve figured out the patterns to win there isn’t a challenge.
The thing that will keep people coming back is the multi-player. This is a great party game, and as long as everyone has a decent connection, Xbox Live is always great fun even with the scoring issues.
Despite the annoying glitches that remain from the original arcade version and new ones introduced on XBLA, Konami’s Track and Field is still worth every penny. Hopefully this game will be a success and Konami’s “Hyper Sports” will be coming soon.