Isn't this just Summer Athletics 2008 repackaged and slapped with a 2009 sticker? At a quick glance it looks like it, but the 2009 edition is now Wii Balance Board compatible, takes place in new stadiums and now includes Skeet Shooting. In other words it's nearly exactly the same.
The market for sports games on the Wii isn't just flooded, it's under 2 miles of sea water, which doesn't bode well for a sequel to a game that was pretty lame in the first place. Add in a mind-numbingly irritating dancing monkey for a mascot and you'll soon want to turn your skeet shooting gun on yourself.
There are now 8 events instead of 7 which are split into Running, Throwing, Archery, Swimming, Diving, Track Cycling and Skeet Shoot challenges. There are individual games for each section, so Running, for example, includes the 100m sprint, 200m sprint, the 400m, relay, hurdles and so on.
GameKult: If the first Summer Athletics, if not interesting, at least had tried to lure the barge leaving a few weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics, the 2009 version arrives surprisingly good two months after the competition that is supposed highlight: the World Championships in Athletics in Berlin.
The summer of sporting action continues, with the battle for gold medals and personal bests on once again in Summer Athletics 2009. As always, the difference between success and failure could be a matter of millimetres or milliseconds, but if your running is ragged or your long-jump lethargic, don't worry.
Ironically, the whole farce is sponsored by Duracell – a brand famed for its ability to go on and on. (And on.) Pairing with Summer Athletics 2009 is an ignorant move; there's no way it'll take the average player more than two AAs to see all it has to offer. Don't let the games begin.
