Every four years someone has to try and capture the magic and intensely competitive feel of the many diverse Olympic sports on our consoles, and this year as the games return to the place from which they originated (Greece), respected developers Eurocom have their stab at it…

Athens 2004 gets off to a good start with a 60Hz option (finally it seems that nearly all PS2 games are getting this), and with some rousing Olympic-fanfare type music in the background, the game immediately grabs your attention and offers you its options:

Arcade – lets you practice any event, have a Single Event competition. Then there's a Party Mode (you use a dance mat instead of a joypad - this option is completely impractical, potentially dangerous and brilliant fun!) and Challenge mode, (1-4 players, no CPU competitors to get in the way).

There are an impressive 25 events in all, although naturally many of these are close derivatives of each other, with similar or identical control systems that hark back to the classic joystick-breaking, blister-inducing 8 and 16-Bit sports games of yore, like Daley Thompson’s Decathlon or Summer Games I and II.

On the Track you get to compete in the 100, 200 and 400 metres, in each you simply press X or circle as quickly as possible to make your runner go faster. The 100 metres Hurdles has the same basic principle, with the added problem of timing your jumps with a press of L1 – this seems a little awkward at first, as L1 doesn’t feel like a terribly instinctive or particularly accurate button, but you do get used to it and it gets used throughout the events. In the longer races (800 & 1500 metres) thankfully the button bashing gets a rest, and the race become a matter of steering your runner (where necessary) with the left stick, and controlling their speed with the right. You have an energy ‘bank’ so a careful balance between keeping on the pace and conserving enough energy for a good kick finish has to be struck. In the Swimming pool there are 100 metre Breaststroke, Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly events, all of which simply need quick presses of X and circle, and the occasional tap of L1 to make your swimmer breathe quickly and have plenty of potential energy to keep their speed up, and not drown.

Gymnastics features the men’s and women’s Floor exercises. The men’s is a combination of hammering the buttons (again), this time the more power you build up, the bigger the sweet zone you’ll have to time your presses of L1 as your gymnast rotates. The women’s more balletic performance is simulated by the now standard rhythm action dance game style interface – match the on-screen arrows with direction presses (this is insanely difficult on the “Gold” setting).

The Vault is a straightforward matter of hammering X and circle again, until you reach the ‘power lock’ point, at which time the amount of runway speed will directly relate to the amount of slow-motion “bullet time” you have to perform the button press combination that simulates the twists and somersaults of the vault.

The Jumping is probably the best looking event in Athens 2004 (this is what has always been known as “Showjumping” or "Equestrian" to us, y'know, with a horse, this isn't some new, formerly unheard of, leap-based sport), and it has a beautifully modelled and animated horse and rider. You steer your ride around the arena with the left stick (following ‘idiot’ guidelines so you don’t get lost) and control the horse’s speed with the right stick, pressing L1 at just the right moment to jump – too early and the horse will clatter the fence on the way down, too late and it’ll refuse, costing you time and 4 fault points.

The Archery is played out over four rounds of three targets, with the wind (indicated by a little flag) playing a big part in the required aiming point of your arrows, the longer you take to shoot the smaller the aiming reticule gets, and the more the joypad trembles, simulating the strain of pulling a powerful bow well – possibly our favourite of all the events.

Shooting allowed us gun mad lot to get our hands on a double-barrelled shotgun again, but this time you’re only allowed to shoot skeets (or clay pigeons) as they’re fired across the range. Sometimes they’ll fly high and slow, sometimes low and fast, and they throw in the occasional double (that fly in opposite directions) to keep you on your toes. It’s simple matter of tracking the skeet across its flight path, and timing your shot perfectly with a press of X – sounds easy, looks easy, but it’s tougher than it looks, and like the Archery, the lure of that perfect score will keep you coming back.

Athens 2004’s straightforward and accessible gameplay means it’s probably a perfect rental or party game for most gamers, but once the Olympics is over we can’t imagine it getting played much. Tidy, playable, competent, and probably in the bargain bins within a month.