It's unfortunate that the Nintendo DS lacks the power to drive graphically-friendly games because decent titles like The Game Factory's World Championship Games: A Track & Field Event just doesn't look good. The character models (like all DS games that I have played so far) are super-low in polygon counts, with triangular arms and floppy rectangular hands. The textures on the characters are pretty low-res as well, but do an okay job for what they are. The developers do allow you to customize your character ever so slightly... a nice feature considering the multiplayer aspect of the game.

The game's audio tends to be very, very repetitive. The Menu music does have a catchy beat, however, so don't be surprised if you find yourself humming along at some point in time. In-game sound fx are there, but consist mostly of the starting gun, a few ambient noises and grunts, and cheering coming from the crowd. In fact, the roar of the crowd is kind of cool in that when you outperform the other athletes, they let you hear it more than when you don't. Still, the game's sounds are rather limited.

World Championship Games isn't without its faults, however. There are some pretty blatant graphical glitches throughout the game, including signs and ground Z-fighting (cutting through each other), visible lines in the textures, and disappearing objects, as well as simple things like the archers missing the strings on their bows. While a lot of the time you should be looking more at the bottom control screen rather than the upper 3D visuals screen, some of these issues are still inexcusable to some degree.

World Championship Games consists of 14 events across four different disciplines. Like all Summer Games videogames that came before this one, the old favorites are back, including the 100m Dash, 110m Hurdles, and the High Jump and Pole Vault. Other ground events include the 400m and the 1500m, which are probably my two least favorite events (the 1500m takes forever... oh, and I stink with the management of running quickly, but leaving enough stamina for the end). I have always loved running the hurdles, but I have to say that they are incredibly difficult in WCG thanks to having to run timing footstep presses using the stylus on the bottom screen while trying to time your jumps by watching your character's positioning relative to the hurdles on the top screen. I don't know about you, having to sacrifice accuracy by peeking from one screen to the other makes for a very frustrating experience.

Fortunately, Hurdles is truly the only event that is unforgiving. Most of the events are relatively easy to learn and still slightly difficult to master. The common theme throughout the game is that you have to use the stylus in a unique way for nearly every event, which I find to make the game a bit more challenging and certainly more entertaining. Even the shooting events offer a nice balance of ease of use versus difficulty in perfection.

The single player game offers Quick Events, Tournaments, or the Decathlon. The Quick Events allows you to jump into any event to practice on your form. Tournaments consists of three locations, Canada, Spain, and China, of which you will have to compete in 5, 8, and 14 events, respectively. The events in each are the same every time you play, so earning a gold medal should only be a matter of time. There are four slots in your trophy case, one for each Tourney location and one for the Decathlon, which has you competing in Track and Field's ultimate prize by working your way through ten rigorous events.

World Championship Games is actually a very fun single-player experience (although it may be a bit too easy when all is said and done), but one of the best things about Olympic-style games is the multiplayer features. World Championship Games doesn't disappoint in the number of opportunities to kick off a multi-player game because you can compete with another player using a single game cartridge either on a single DS or on multiple DS systems via Download Play. You can also use multiple carts to have up to four players compete, or you can do the same by going online via Nintendo's Wi-Fi connection. With this number of options, multiplayer should be outstanding, but it's not. Sure, competing against your buddy is thrilling, but the multiplayer game is limited to single events at a time (except in the "pass-around" single DS mode). There is no Tournament, Decathlon, nor option to create a play list of your favorite events. Leaving this out was a huge mistake and really puts the single-player experience ahead of the multiplayer... a shock and a disappointment for this type of game.

It should also be noted that connecting to others via the Internet doesn't seem to work as well as it should. I tried numerous times to connect to others out there only to be disappointed every single time, including when I knew for a fact that my buddy was online at the same time as me. We were only able to connect after typing in each other's Friend Code... but even this method lead to the frustration of finally connecting (although only a "?" symbol showed for our names), only to seemingly never start the Quick Match. It wasn't until we waited for a very long time that we finally got into a game with each other because there was no countdown timer on the matchup screen while we were waiting for a third and fourth player (who never connected) and there was no way to start the game immediately with less than four players in the waiting room. On a positive note, after that initial connection, the game suffered no noticeable lag and we were able to easily and quickly select event after event without having to go through the full reconnection process.

For the single player experience, there are three difficulty modes to choose from. Depending on your skill level, there is likely a good choice for just about anyone. Keep in mind, however, that even with an "Everyone" rating for World Championship Games, I don't think younger kids will enjoy this title as much because there are generally a few different timing moves that have to be performed with the stylus, D-pad, and shoulder button, which may be a bit difficult for some of the youngest gamers.

On the flip side of things, those who have experience with Olympic-style games may find that World Championship Games is actually a bit too easy to play through. I tend to put myself into this category and while the game is generally challenging, it is also not uncommon for me to get first place nearly every time on the hardest difficulty setting. Over time, this will only get less and less difficult as well, after learning the ins and outs of striving for perfection.

You do have a separate trophy room for each of the three difficulty levels, however, so players that aren't up there in skill level will have something to reach for. Those who can compete out of the box with the best of the best will likely get bored with this title quickly, however. Another factor that is a bit frustrating is that it is way too common to receive the same score (throwing events) or time (running events), so I imagine that there will be a certain point when it will be impossible to get new Personal Best scores or even World Records.

World Championship Games has a pretty good manner of control for each event. While there are a few very small things that could be tweaked, the controls are fun and easy to use, making for a generally enjoyable experience. The exception is in the 110m Hurdles, as mentioned above, because while you need to really focus on the bottom screen's stylus tapping on the scrolling footsteps, you have to peak up at the top screen to time the jumps, which in turn means that it is hard to keep your footing back on the bottom screen. Similarly, all of the running events allow you to lean at the finish line, but again you have no indication on the bottom screen of when to attempt this to shave milliseconds off your time.

The Menu system of this title is also a mixed bag in my mind. Most of the time it is straightforward, but when you get into the Wi-Fi connections, sometimes it feels like you need to go forward through the Menus, but really need to go back, etc. Unfortunately, after exiting events, I feel lost sometimes because the Menu doesn't remember where you were and you have to re-navigate again.

With these complaints aside, however, World Championship Games: A Track & Field Event is still one of the better Olympic-style videogames that I have played as far as controls and enjoyability go. Top that with the fact that this game is both portable and accessible to multiplayer gaming on a number of levels, and you have a title that may be worth picking up. Had the multiplayer modes been a bit more in-depth, World Championship Games would have been a smashing success, but instead it falls short of being "great" and has to settle for "good."