Disney Summer Games Review

For every story about the medals and general glory of the Beijing Olympics, there have been two talking about China's unnervingly zealous preparations for the event outside of the stadium. From reports of the authorities effectively banning black people from bars to making 'looking a bit shabby' a criminal offence, the lingering odour can't help but taint the otherwise-impressive recent opening ceremony.

There are no such flies on Disney Summer Games, of course. After all, what could be farther from fascism and controversy than old Uncle Walt and the exploits of Minnie, Mickey, Donald and Goofy?

Each character has their own event, giving four in total. Minnie mounts a gymnastics balance bar, and you have to keep her upright by tapping '4' and '6', while hitting '5' makes her perform a ballet-style move. The fuller the bar is at the point when you execute the move, the more points you get. Actually getting the gold medal in this event is pretty tricky, though, as you only have a minute to rake in those points.

Slightly easier is Donald's high dive. After starting the dive, you need to press the '5' key as the marker in a spinning dial meets the green spot to make Donald spin. At the end of the dive, you then need to make him land straight with the old familiar '4' and '6' key balancing act from the previous event.

Eschewing balance altogether, Goofy's hurdles affair is all about timing. Underneath Goofy's sprite is a symbol that matches a similar symbol underneath each hurdle. All you have to do is hit '5' when these symbols are on top of each other. Doing this perfectly three times in a row makes Goofy dash quickly past the next two hurdles. It's simple, but surprisingly tough as you'll often find yourself tangled up with a hurdle as you hit '5' a nanosecond too late in an attempt to ace the jump.

By far the most confusing event is Disney King Mickey's 100m swim. At first it seems a lot like Goofy's hurdle dash in that you're pressing '5' as symbols converge for each of Mickey's strokes, but then there's also the added action of plunging underwater with the left soft-key. Only the first bit is properly explained in the Help section, and just doing this will earn you a grand total of nil points. Learning to swim may be tougher than learning to walk, but this is ridiculous.

We can only imagine the distraught faces on the impressionable youngsters who get their hands on Disney Summer Games, wincing back the tears as Mickey sinks helplessly into his chlorinated tomb, their jabbing thumbs no match for the inadequacies of Mickey's breast stroke.

Only joking, of course: Mickey keeps on swimming regardless of what you do, but you get the idea.

There's no Tournament mode as such, and each event is available from the outset, making this very much a casual gamer buffet. However, beating the world record on each event unlocks a secondary Challenge mode. In this, the difficulty and objectives are tightened up for the more experienced athlete. Ultimately though, Disney Summer Games's allure starts to wear thin once you've beaten each world record.

Aside from the problems with Mickey's event, the gameplay here is what can only be described as 'perfectly fine'. Damning with faint praise perhaps, but considering that the Disney crowd isn't likely to be the same hardcore bunch who are doubtless tapping away at Playman Summer Games 3, the match between Mickey's colourful cronies and these ultra casual, albeit tricky, mini-games is a pleasant one.