At least most of the included events are well done, even if they do veer on the shallow side. The last Olympic video game, Beijing 2008, was plagued by an overload of events that forced players to frantically tap buttons–an activity that is the polar opposite of fun. That mindless control method is used only sparingly in Vancouver 2010, resulting in a much more enjoyable experience. The controls change little between skiing and snowboarding down a mountain, but they are responsive, so it can be fun to fly down an icy hill a few times. The problem is that there are only a few different courses (which change depending on the event), so you’re forced to wind your way down the same path every time you replay the event. You only have to go down the hill a few times to memorize the layout, and after you know the exact route to take, there is little incentive to improve your time or play again.

The bobsledding events are even more repetitive. Two-man bobsled, skeleton, and luge are all represented here, but they all control in almost exactly the same way and all take place on the same frozen water slide. It is certainly fun to careen down that slippery track the first few times–making sure you don’t slam into the walls that hover dangerously close to your sled while zooming up as high on the banked curves as possible without flipping over–but once you’ve done it a couple times, there isn’t any reason to go back. And that is the biggest problem with Vancouver 2010. Skiing, snowboarding, and bobsledding events all control well and are pretty fun at first, but there are only a few different courses to go through, which severely limits the replay value. With a whopping 10 out of the included 14 events essentially boiled down into two unique activities, the entire package ends up being skimpy and forgettable.

The other four included events do inject a dose of variety, but they lack the fun of the racing activities. Ski Jump and Aerials, for instance, require players to tap a specific button at the right moment, but it takes only two or three practice runs before you master this technique. The 500-meter speed skating event forces players to frantically mash a button to maintain top speed, and though it requires a bit of skill to take corners at top speed, it’s too tiring and repetitive to entertain for long. The 1,500-meter variety introduces a rhythm game mechanic for most of the race, but is too simple to make repeat runs entertaining. And that is the entirety of the included events. There is no score-based snowboarding competition, biathlon, or even the crazy mixed doubles luge. Even considering the reduced price of this game ($50), there is a dearth of content.

The Olympic mode continues the theme of a stripped winter sports experience by offering a very bare-bones take on the spectacle. You compete in a series of one-off events–without any commentary or special visual touches to make the events mirror the television broadcasts–and are then thrust on a podium afterward to receive your medal. There are only 24 countries to choose from (compared to the more than 80 that will compete in the real games), and you can’t even customize the appearance of your competitors. Furthermore, the events themselves are lacking in presentation, diminishing the thrill of striving for a gold medal. Weirdly enough, many events blast rock music while you’re trying to focus, which clashes severely with the otherwise serene, wintry atmosphere. There is little incentive to play these events more than one time in Olympic mode, which is awfully strange. One would think that the Olympic mode would be a key aspect of an Olympic game, but it feels like an afterthought in Vancouver 2010.

Thankfully, there is one mode in which to take solace in Vancouver 2010. Challenges let you take part in a variety of objective-based events that are the most interesting aspect of this game. Most of your goals involve tearing through an event as if you were a real life competitor, keeping your speed above a certain average in downhill skiing or taking corners perfectly in the luge, which forces you to master the intricacies of the courses and controls. However, there are a few objectives that seem flat-out game-y, sucking you out of the otherwise simulation atmosphere offered in the rest of the game. For instance, during one downhill skiing event, you must slam into snowmen to earn time bonuses, and in a snowboarding event, your controls are inexplicably reversed. Nevertheless, every one of these 30 challenges are fun, and it’s rewarding trying to shave off a second or land a particularly difficult jump. It’s a shame the rest of the game doesn’t have the same care found in the Challenge mode because there is good deal of entertainment in these winter events.

Because of the lack of variety among the events, the multiplayer mode has only a little bit more appeal than the standard single-player competitions. You can play online or off, with up to four players, and it is fun striving for the best time against your buddies. But like every other element of Vancouver 2010, the fun doesn’t last long. With only a few unique events and even fewer courses to choose from, everything becomes stale soon after you start playing. Only the difficult Challenge mode is really interesting, but with only 30 challenges to take part in that too is only fun for so long. Although Vancouver 2010 is vastly improved from Beijing 2008, it is ultimately lacking in many key areas. It’s still more fun to watch the real lugers do their thing than take part in this shallow digital representation.

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0 Day Attack on Earth is an overhead shooter, and the controls are really simple. You pick an aircraft of your choice and are instantly thrown into the battle. The left analog stick controls your ship’s movement, while the right chooses the direction you want to fire. The right bumper will drop a bomb that destroys all enemies nearby, while the left allows you to temporarily boost in a certain direction. These are all the controls you need to play the game, but there are some interesting mechanics involved in 0 Day Attack on Earth. Every enemy you kill drops a green orb that increases your score.

These orbs also have other uses. For instance, they slowly refill your ship’s health meter so you can remain in fights. More importantly is that these orbs also power up your ship. Each of the different types of ships has a unique three-tiered weapon system. At level 1, it’s a puny machine gun, but as you pick up orbs, you’ll level up the weapon. Higher-level weapons vary depending on what aircraft you’re using and can be either a spread of multiple machine guns, homing rockets, heavy cannon shots or flamethrowers. At level 3, weapons usually gain more attack power and unique attributes. My personal favorite was a helicopter that gained a flamethrower at level 2 and a second rear-mounted flamethrower at level 3, allowing it to become a whirling fireball of death.

0 Day Attack On Earth’s missions are structured rather simply. You’re dropped into the middle of a furious air battle over one of Earth’s cities, and your goal is to eliminate the enemy leaders within a certain time limit. It sounds simple enough on the surface. Arrows on your HUD and red dots on your radar show the exact locations of the enemies you need to kill. It can be a bit challenging to kill them, but if you focus on them, it isn’t too difficult. There are also tons of alien machines scattered around the levels, just waiting to be blown to pieces by your weapons. Destroying enemies increases your score, and the more enemies you destroy, the higher your score. Simply winning the game in 0 Day Attack on Earth shouldn’t be your overall goal; in old-school arcade style, you’re attempting to get the highest possible score within the time limit. This means that you have to destroy the leaders and as many of their minions as you can. You generally have an excess of time, but it still involves careful management of your abilities. Spend too long farming weak enemies, and you might not have time to break through your enemy’s defenses and take out their leader.

Enemies in 0 Day Attack on Earth come in all shapes and sizes. Different enemy fighter crafts have different tactics: fly around and try to smash into you, fire lasers, crush you in a vise, teleport behind you for an ambush, or even latch onto your ship and attempt to self-detonate. These enemies are dangerous because of their numbers and not their individual attack power, but you also earn you very few points for destroying them.

In order to get a ton of points, you have to attack the enemy’s big assault crafts, which take up a good chunk of the screen and have tons of weapons and strong defenses. You have to pound on them for a bit before they explode, but you get a lot more points in exchange. These mid-bosses come in many forms. Some are tripod walkers à la “War of the Worlds,” while others are flying snake monsters or weird flower-like enemy spawners.

The deadliest units of all are usually the leader units. These units are large and often take up most of the screen, and they can withstand bullets with ease. They’re also powerful attackers and can launch swarms of bullets, tentacles or other weapons, forcing you to dodge or be destroyed. The leaders are actually the most interesting units, and for good reason. While they are usually dangerous, every so often, they’ll go into an attack pattern that’s deadly but easily dodged. If you back up, you’ll generally keep yourself outside of their range. The only problem is that this puts them outside of your attack range as well. If you want to easily avoid their attacks, you can’t damage them until it is over, wasting precious time. Each enemy has holes in their attack patterns that you can exploit to continue damaging the unit even when they’re going all out with their attacks. The problem is that this puts you at much greater risk of dying. Getting caught in one of these swarms is almost instant death, turning the game into a pseudo-Gradius, where you are a moment from death at all times.

If you play 0 Day Attack on Earth in single-player mode, you’re aided by a group of NPC planes. These planes can’t be killed, but they also can’t upgrade or be commanded, so they’re of limited use. The real way to demolish the enemies is going to be in co-op mode, which allows you to play online with other gamers. It generally follows the same basic rules as the single-player game, but it also has a few twists. All the units share lives, so if one dies, all players lose a life, but death isn’t an instant game over. Once all your lives are gone, you get “frozen” instead of killed, so you’re prevented from doing anything unless one of your allies shoots you free or you wait a lengthy period of time. If all allies are frozen, the game is over. Like the single-player mode, this plays into the goal of earning a high score. You can generally avoid getting a game over with careful play, but every moment wasted on a frozen ally is one less second you can use on earning high scores. The game will also feature competitive multiplayer with traditional Capture the Flag and Point Capture modes, where two teams compete to either capture the opponent’s flag or hold certain areas for a period of time.

0 Day Attack on Earth has the makings of a great arcade game. It may not have a deep plot or interesting characters, but it perfectly captures the feel of the “Independence Day” movie. Zooming through the enemy defenses and trying to destroy as many foes as possible is quite exciting, due in no small part to the way the scoring system works. The game is designed in such a way to encourage you to take risks and play offensively, as each wasted moment brings you closer to running out of time. It’s an interesting mechanic that even pushes cautious players to take risks. The online mode looks to be a well-made cooperative game for players of all skill levels. The freezing mechanic prevents high-level players from being held back by novices, while still letting them play together with their friends. Competitive multiplayer gives those same friends a chance to tear each other apart. All in all, 0 Day Attack on Earth is shaping up to be a solid arcade shooter. It might be disappointing to those who buy Square Enix titles for their plots, but anyone looking for an addictive old-school arcade game will find a lot to like here.

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