As a child gamer of the late 80s and early 90s, I spent countless hours button-mashing and joystick-waggling to claim various summer Olympic gold medals. Olympic Gold was a personal favourite, but there were plenty, and I’m sure it gave me repetitive strain injury multiple times and knackered many a joystick and keyboard. Sports Hero aims to replicate that pain with a 1 or 2-player collection of 9 events to test your finger stamina.
Each event requires button-mashing. If you are running, you’ll need two buttons, pressing the arrow keys or your bumper buttons alternatively to increase the speed of your athlete. A third button can be used to jump a hurdle in the 110m hurdles, lift a weight in weightlifting, or, if you press and hold it, do the long jump and javelin throw. When swimming or rowing, Sports Hero asks for a three-button mash, either mashing them all as quickly as possible or pressing them all together like a rhythmic pulse. These tiny nuances break up some of the finger-aching gameplay a bit, but more could have been done to differentiate the control schemes for each event.
Only the 100 meters is available at first, and as you gain XP per run based on your finishing position, you’ll unlock the next event, and so on. Each event has six difficulty levels, unlocked as you win the difficulty level you are playing at. Oddly, you cannot ever roll back difficulty levels. It makes having a second player somewhat tricky if they aren’t capable of playing at your difficulty level, especially in the races. As AI will always fill out slots 2 (if in single player), 3, or 4, it also feels odd that there isn’t a 3 or 4-player mode.
For its price point, Sports Hero is cheap, cheerful, and brings back the button-mashing competitive edge that I have locked away in a distant childhood memory. It lacks a general finesse that makes it a recommendable title, though. When throwing or jumping, it doesn’t seem to care about aiming for 45-degree angles. Instead, building up a touch more speed and getting a 30-degree angle often performs better. Judging your speed isn’t always obvious, as the UI does a poor job of translating how fast you are travelling. I don’t think the UI is broken, but it feels like it deals in step increments that are too large to register a change in user input speed. It is a bit off-putting. I also think Summer Olympic sports video games have progressed beyond having absolutely everything be a button-mash. I’d love to see a sequel where more refined controls, maybe some more timing or rhythmic-based inputs, or, if controllers are forced, use of the analogue sticks, could help create variety.
For now, Sports Hero isn’t a shabby way to spend £2 on nostalgia, but Olympic Gold and many other retro sports games like this are out there for free, and they do a comparable job.
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