In case you hadn’t noticed, the Olympics are a few weeks away and interest (or incessant coverage) of sport is almost at fever pitch. In the race to release Olympic related software it was Mario and Sonic who first crossed the finish line however Summer Stars 2012 – in no way affiliated with the Olympics at all – manages to get in before the official London 2012 tie-in. With eighteen events in which to grab gold, as well as support for both motion and standard control schemes, Summer Stars has a lot to offer on the surface. However, what lies beneath the marketing spiel and bullet points leaves a lot to be desired.
While Summer Stars 2012 may not have the license of the actual Olympic Games, that doesn’t mean you will miss out on any authenticity or fun of what the games mean to millions of people. You get 18 great events to participate in including Fencing, Long Jump, High Jump, Swimming, Distance running, Javelin, and much more. While there may be a lack of online play, that doesn’t mean that you will not have a competitive drive to succeed each event. Not only do you have free play to engage against the wily CPU, but you can dive in head to head against 3 of your closest friends, old school style, crowded around the TV in one room.
Ken McKown writes: The Olympic Games have come and gone, and somehow I am still reviewing a game based on such events. To be fair, we didn’t receive Summer Stars 2012 until about a week ago, which is disappointing considering how surprisingly good it actually is. For a game that boasts a $19.99 price tag and not an official sponsor in sight, you would be inclined to expect the worst. What we ended up with is a marginally exciting experience that is worth it if, like me, you are moderately interested in the summer games.
"With the 2012 London Olympics fully underway, it’s not surprising to see plenty of sports games popping up all over the place. What might be surprising is that 49Games and Deep Silver’s newest release Summer Stars 2012 is the best of the bunch, even over the so called “Official Video Game of the Olympic Games” London 2012. Summer Stars 2012 capitalizes on many ingenious ideas and nearly perfect execution in gaming development to create hands-down the best sports game of the Summer." -Amanda Dyar
sounds pretty generous to me.