Track & Field II (NES) review "Konami once again tried to make a brand new sports category. I can't say they succeeded exactly, but they made a pretty good game. It would've been a classic if not for a couple of small flaws and one major flaw. In this game, you can choose to train or go to the Olympics. In the Olympics you have 3 events a day, and you must qualify in them to proceed to the next day. When you start you chose a country to represent. Then you proceed to the games. "

Konami once again tried to make a brand new sports category. I can't say they succeeded exactly, but they made a pretty good game. It would've been a classic if not for a couple of small flaws and one major flaw. In this game, you can choose to train or go to the Olympics. In the Olympics you have 3 events a day, and you must qualify in them to proceed to the next day. When you start you chose a country to represent. Then you proceed to the games.

First Day:
The first day includes fencing, the triple jump, and free-style swimming. Fencing is just basicly having a small sword fight trying to hit the other person. You can move around, perry, and thrust. You can aim at different points of the body so one can't just be safe with a perry. If you walk out of the ring you automatically lose. In the triple jump, you run as fast as you can then jump across a plain. To make your third jump qualify your first two must be good which is annoying. Finally you have free style swimming. When the bullet sounds you swim across the pool and back. You must scale it in 50 seconds or you are disqualified. You can do a standard swim, a butterfly, and a couple other ones chosen by the way you execute your arms and legs.

The days after it include the events high dive, clay pigeon shooting, hammer throw, taekwando, pole vault, canoeing, archery, hurdles, and the horizontal bar.

Second Day:

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics on this are really nice. All of the characters have detailed sprites, and you can tell Konami put alot of work into them here. Very nice.

Gameplay: 8/10
The games you can proceed in are quite fun. They have a wide range and also range in difficulty. It ranges from Fencing, to Swimming, to Pole Vaulting, to Taekwando. Konami put alot of effort here to make the games different, but fun. Too bad the outcome wasn't what it should've been.

Control: 3/10
I usually don't count this as a factor in a game but the control was so bad that I had to in this review. It really screws up the game. Playing it on the NES controller is difficult, and on a keyboard is near impossible. For thew hammer throw, for instance, you must rotate the control bad in all directions(which hurts your thumb) then press the button while he's flashing. Or the swimming even where you must rapidly press both buttons. Or the canoeing where several flasg you must turn your boat around to go through successfully is very annoying. This is the one big flaw in the game that caused the game to stop from being a classic.

Sound/Music: 5/10
The music in this is only average. Nothing catchy, nothing amazing, just plain average. The music which is ok at first but then gets on your nerves after hearing it over and over. And the voices in this are just plain annoying. After hearing the one guy that keeps repeating the phrase ''Disqualified! On your mark get set go!'' about 10 times on the title screen and 50 times in every event I wanted to find the guy who recorded that and slap him repeatedly.

Overall: 6/10
This game could've been a classic. It could've been remembered as one of the great NES games. But, thanks to Konami's lack of effort into the control it remains a game only remembered when one watches those old ABC Signal Videos with Helpful Hints on NES games. It's a real shame, however, this being good allowed games like International Track and Field on the DC to be made.

Community review by aganar (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.