Gaming
Athletics
The 6 best athletics games of all time
From arcade originals to modern classics, these are the top track and field games.
Missing the World Athletics Championships? Need something to fill your time? Why not play a track and field game? Of course, you could go jogging in the park, but it won't be as thrilling as tapping buttons as fast as you can and watching your virtual athlete cross the line in first. Admittedly, physical exercise is better for you, but anyone who has played Track & Field will tell you that it gives your fingers a good workout.
Here's our selection of the best athletics games of all time – there are some retro games in this selection, but you should be able to track most of them down.
Track & Field (Arcade, NES)
Track & Field
© Konami
Konami’s vintage athletics game hit the arcades the year before the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and went down a storm among coin-op gamers. Its popularity soared even higher when a NES port was released a few years later, making its iconic controls – to run you had to quickly alternate between pressing A, B, A, B, A, B – the stuff of gaming legend. Most athletics games to this day continue to use this control method to build up power and running speed, and it’s all thanks to Track & Field. If you fancy trying it out these days, it’s available to download for a few quid on Xbox Live Marketplace.
Daley Thompson's Decathlon (ZX Spectrum, iOS)
Daley Thompson's Decathlon
© Ocean
Inspired by the success of Track & Field, UK developer Ocean Software made its own version starring British Decathlon gold medalist Daley Thompson. As the name of the game suggests, players had to play through ten different events, with failure to reach the target time or score in each event leading to Game Over. Whereas Track & Field made the A-B-A-B button system popular, Daley Thompson’s Decathlon instead introduced joystick-waggling, which broke many a stick (not to mention injured many a wrist) over the years. If you crave some retro fun, a remake was released on iOS a couple of years ago.
Athlete Kings (Arcade, Saturn)
Athlete Kings
© Sega
Sega’s arcade athletics title was unique in that it featured polygonal graphics, which in 1994 were still a new and remarkable evolution in gaming. The ten events featured are fairly straightforward but where Athlete Kings excels is in its playable characters, with each of the eight competitors sporting their own strengths, weaknesses and unique outfits. If Greg Rutherford thinks the British kit is bad for the World Championships, he should check out the zebra print leotard worn by the game's GB competitior Robin Banks.
New International Track & Field (DS)
New International Track and Field
© Konami
Konami has released a number of sequels to Track & Field, and this DS offering is one of the best. Developed by Sumo Digital (who later went on to make the Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing games), it features 24 events, including 100m, pole vault, steeplechase and horizontal bar. More notably, it also features a host of unlockable characters from Konami games, including Solid Snake, Frogger and, bizarrely, Pyramid Head from Silent Hill.
London 2012 (Xbox 360, PS3)
London 2012
© Sega
Until last generation, games with the official Olympics licence had, by and large, been a bit rubbish. This changed when Sega got hold of the rights and released the half-decent Beijing 2008, following it up with this official game of the London 2012 Olympics. It featured 31 different events, some of which had never featured in an Olympic video game before (such as beach volleyball and trampoline), and although there were a couple of stinkers – we still have nightmares about the weightlifting – overall it's a cracking little compilation.
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii)
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
© Nintendo
With its Olympics licence, Sega wasn’t merely allowed to make serious official games - it was also given the green light to make more light-hearted Olympics titles on Nintendo consoles, starring its own mascot Sonic as well as Nintendo’s Mario. The London 2012 game was actually the third in the series (after Beijing 2008 and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics) and featured 21 standard events plus ten ‘dream’ events, which took place in locations in the Mario and Sonic universes. It obviously didn’t win any Game Of The Year awards but if you’re looking for a fun party game this is still a great shout.
