World Games (NES)

World Games Box Art

World Games

System: NES

Release Date: March 1989

Developer: Software Creations

Publisher: Milton Bradley Company

Genre: Sports

Up next we have World Games, which is the followup to the abysmal Winter Games. We’ve got a new developer and publisher, which will hopefully lead to a better game, but my expectations are low. You enter a four character name and pick your country from the US, Canada, USSR, Japan, Great Britain, and France. You can play through all the events or play one at a time.

You start off heading to the USSR to take part in weight lifting. There are two portions, the Snatch, and the Clean & Jerk. In both, you set your weight, then you press down to set, up to lift, down to get under, up to lift, then down to drop the weights after you qualify. It comes down to your timing and the higher weights require more precise timing. Next you head to Germany for barrel jumping. Choose how many barrels you want to attempt, then alternate pressing left and right to build speed. At the flag, press the A Button and hope you clear them all.

Next up, you head to sunny Acapulco in Mexico for cliff diving. You can choose the cliff to jump from, presumably the higher up, the more points possible. You jump off and start in a swan, then you need to straighten up before you hit the water. Once you’re in, you need to make sure to press left to swim up or you may end up paralyzed. After that, it’s off to the slopes of France for slalom skiing. You have to go through the flags in order, being careful not to fall down.

We then head to Canada for the lumberjack log rolling event. Best I can tell, you have to press left and right repeatedly to stay on the log. If you fall behind too much, it’s into the drink and for some reason a shark is here in shallow seeming water. Our next destination is Texas for the bull riding event. You choose one of five bulls who require progressively more precise timing. When the bull is moving, you press in the direction it’s moving. When it starts to spin, you hold down. If you do poorly, you get some horns up the butt for your trouble.

Scotland is one of the last two stops for the caber toss. You have to press right and left to step, then when you’re up to speed, hold the A Button to plant and release to toss. The caber has to flip at least once for the toss to count. If you mess up, you’ll either stub your toe or get bashed into the ground. The final event is in the Land of the Rising Sun as two beefy slabs of man battle in sumo wrestling. Pressing the d-pad in different directions perform different maneuvers. You can also grab your opponents belt by pressing the A Button and then perform throws. The first man to touch the floor or out of the ring loses.

Graphics: 1.0

The graphics aren’t very good, but I can tell what things are supposed to be. It’s marginally better than Winter Games.

Sound: 1.5

There are several different ditties that play at the beginning of events, as well as the national anthems of the different countries.

Gameplay: 1.0

The gameplay is poor, but at least I could get every event to work. Most events are timing based, which is an approach to take. You’re going to have to practice a lot to be able to do well on the events.

Difficulty: 1.0

The timing based gameplay gets old fast. These mini-game compilations aren’t a good fit for the home console.

Fun Factor: 0.5

I didn’t have much fun. It’s not complete unredeeming like Winter Games, but it’s not any good.

Overall Grade: 1.0

World Games earns a D. It may be better than its predecessor, but that doesn’t make it any good. I think it took too long for publishers to realize that just because something worked on the computer doesn’t mean it worked on the console.

World Games Video Review on YouTube