The success of Summer Games (1984) on computers had prompted Epyx to continue their series of sports games, adapting the 1988 Winter Olympics, held in Calgary, in advance. Like its summer counterpart, Winter Games was a great success, with a spriting that was rather elegant for its time. All the positive remarks that can be heard about this title are valid, but unfortunately cannot be applied to the NES port, which manages the feat of being, by far, the worst of all.
It is notable that a number of events have been removed in this version – for capacity reasons, not unlike the first ports of Hyper Olympics to the Famicom –, namely the biathlon and ski jumping. This is a decision that is difficult to understand, as these are arguably the most interesting and natural events to play on the NES. Instead, the title retains the figure events, which require the player to have the manual open with them, as the controls are so cryptic: one rather inexplicable choice is the refusal to use the B button for anything, resulting in weird button combinations that could have been avoided. In particular, the figure skating feels exceptionally heavy, and getting through an axel or lutz is not even satisfactory. In general, the port constantly betrays the fact that it is primarily a game for computers. The menu seems much more suited to the Commodore 64 or MSX, as does the bobsleigh interface, which puts the action in the top right corner of the screen, making it almost unreadable.
Critics were not wrong: Winter Games is a disastrous port, failing to emulate what makes a sports game interesting. Compared to the NES version of Track & Field (1985), it comes across as archaic and terribly complicated to understand. It's no wonder that the addition of Winter Games to the Wii Virtual Console catalogue favoured the Commodore 64 version over the NES version.
It is notable that a number of events have been removed in this version – for capacity reasons, not unlike the first ports of Hyper Olympics to the Famicom –, namely the biathlon and ski jumping. This is a decision that is difficult to understand, as these are arguably the most interesting and natural events to play on the NES. Instead, the title retains the figure events, which require the player to have the manual open with them, as the controls are so cryptic: one rather inexplicable choice is the refusal to use the B button for anything, resulting in weird button combinations that could have been avoided. In particular, the figure skating feels exceptionally heavy, and getting through an axel or lutz is not even satisfactory. In general, the port constantly betrays the fact that it is primarily a game for computers. The menu seems much more suited to the Commodore 64 or MSX, as does the bobsleigh interface, which puts the action in the top right corner of the screen, making it almost unreadable.
Critics were not wrong: Winter Games is a disastrous port, failing to emulate what makes a sports game interesting. Compared to the NES version of Track & Field (1985), it comes across as archaic and terribly complicated to understand. It's no wonder that the addition of Winter Games to the Wii Virtual Console catalogue favoured the Commodore 64 version over the NES version.