Original Release: Sega, 1997, Arcade
Other Releases: Saturn (1998), PS2 (2004)
The follow-up to DecAthlete adds a tad more varied gameplay between its events, but is still pretty much the same thing
Winter Heat PS2, Sega, 2004)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: PlayStation 2 Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
I guess Winter Heat is marginally better than predecessor Decathletes, in that at least a couple events involve steering rather than button-pounding. It’s the same ol tune on the same ol fiddle though, even bringing back mostly the same cast of characters (but giving them some fashionable ski wear instead).
As Decathletes was thrown together to capitalize on interest in the ’96 games, Winter Heat came out a year later ahead of the ’98 winter events in Japan. The same crew goes through a linear string of events that involve button-pounding and timing of the press of another button, but now you’ve got “skeleton” (luge), skiing and snowboarding events that involve steering downhill and trying to avoid obstacles to keep your speed up.
Steering events aside, it’s kinda like Olympic cinemas that play out with QTE inputs. The two games looked good (and advanced) for the time, and the main focus was on catching eyes at the arcade with the then-modern 3D graphics. But in this case, at least the home version added three new events. It’s still pretty sparse for a solo player though, outside of the regular arcade mode all it offers is to play each event whenever you want or remix them into your own preferred order. No “career mode” or anything like that.
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