New International Track & Field

Celebrate Track & Field’s 25th Anniversary with this modernised version.

EU release: 20th June 2008
NA release: 22nd July 2008
JP release: 24th July 2008
Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Konami
NGamer Magazine Review: 64%
Platforms: DS
Version Played: DS

Coming out five months after the DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Konami decided that with the big rise in sports minigame collections, it was time for a new International Track & Field, with Sumo Digital at the helm and copying the naming convention of another popular DS game: New Super Mario Bros.

Out of all the games I’ve played in my playthrough so far, this might be the toughest for me. As you’d expect, it uses the stylus and has you moving it back and forth to run. This isn’t a case of just going fast (like Mario & Sonic), but also keeping a certain pace going. I could not do this in the slightest, managing to complete 100m in over a minute. You can also change to mashing A and B, and I fared slightly better – but still couldn’t do better than a bronze medal.

Luckily, save files exist for me to reach the main thing I was trying to unlock: the special characters. As you complete the game, you’ll unlock characters from different Konami franchises: Solid Snake, Pyramid Head, Frogger, A Power Pro player, Evil Rose from the wrestling series Rumble Roses, the Penguin from Parodius, Sparkster from Rocket Knight (a Konami producer was trying to get the franchise revived, and a new game came out a few years later), Oolong from the 1984 Arcade fighter Yie Ar Kung-Fu and, of course, Simon Belmont.

With these characters, you can have them in athletic attire or keep them into something a bit more recognisable (which I think is important with the chibi style the game uses). A few of these characters, including Simon, have their own challenge minigame. Here, you’ll face off against Dracula with a crossbow as he throws bats at you. After killing a few bays, you can then aim at one of the panels covering the window – once those are all gone, you defeat Dracula. As this didn’t require rhythmic rubbing, I was able to do quite well at this.

For people who can get used to either of the control methods, New International Track & Field seems like a well made sports game, with 24 different events (plus the six challenge events) and multiple ways to play through them. It got quite good reviews at the time, especially for including button controls.