ESPN International Track & Field: The Unlicensed Olympic Game Released A Month Too Late

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There were 29 games to be released alongside the PlayStation 2 when it debuted stateside on October 26, 2000. One game, however, felt as if it was about a month too late. That being ESPN International Track & Field.
You see, the Sydney Games wrapped up on October 1st. Usually, it is the few months in the build-up to the Olympics that you’d want to have your track & field game available. ESPN International Track & Field, under various other names, had been on the market for PS1, N64, and Sega Dreamcast for nearly a year.
Of course, the PS2 didn't hit shelves until after the Olympics, so there wasn’t much that could be done. I actually remember seeing screenshots in GamePro at some point in the early 2000s and being blown away.
Let’s start with this, the game is fantastic to look at. Even today, this is a pretty damn good-looking game. I mean, there is certainly an over-the-top appearance to the character models. But when you compare this to some of the other launch titles of PS2, especially sports-related, this is graphically the best in view.
Also, the ESPN graphical overlays and menus here are outstanding. As a sports fan growing up during this time, there will always be an infinity for this ESPN style and Konami did a great job of incorporating these through the game. Of course, track and field isn’t the first sport you think of when you think of the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
Perhaps so much time was spent making the game look good in hopes people wouldn’t notice the fatal flaw of ESPN International Track & Field: There are ten events, and only five are related to track and field. 50% of the game is dedicated to things that are neither track nor field.
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[@mikeavina168]

ESPN’s red, black, white, semi translucent box scores ❤ classic

[@jonmel]

London 2012 is still the best post 2000 Olympics game

[@chrisguardiano6143]

Great video. In addition to this game, Konami also made a winter sports version of this game called ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 that was released a couple of weeks before the Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Like this game, there was not a whole lot of depth in terms of a career mode, though there were a few more options when it came to women's events such as alpine skiing, snowboarding, figure skating & speed skating. A few winter sports that were notably absent from this game were bobsleigh & basically every other sliding sport along with cross country skiing & the biathlon. As it relates to game play, ESPN International Winter Sports had the same issues that this game had especially when it came to speed skating as it used the X & O button combination that the 100 meters used. However the graphics were great. I remember playing this game as a kid & suddenly becoming interested in alpine skiing as a result.

[@jacekatalakis8316]

For the naming, it always puzzled me why they didn't try to get the IAAF license, with athletics being broadcast quite a lot in the late 90s/early 2000s. Hell you had Sergie Bubka put his name on a game. WHy they didn't try to go get a name like, say, Linford Christie or Colin Jackson in the UK or Ato Bolden in the North American market, or Marion Jones or Maurice Green or someone like that to put in the title or pair up with USA Track and Field to license the game as an official game, I doubt we'll ever know why, but this was the era of having a cover, well, athlete and to me having someone of Maurice Green's caliber on the cover would be a no brainer, you could just internationalize it by having various European or Australian runners in varying markets if you wanted to shell out the licensing fees, Codies did this with their racing games by having them regionally licensed, ToCA in the UK, DTM in Europe, Race Driver in the USS, V8 Supercar in Australia/NZ for instance. Makes me wonder why Konami didn't try this approach however.

[@TheFort87]

Got this at GameStop cheap a decade ago after a few rentals in 2000-01. That track on expert rhythmic gymnastics is fire

[@georgeblangfordjr.1771]

It's a good thing ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 video game came out a week before the actual 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games

[@ynotefil]

Went To Circuit City To Buy A CD. Left Circuit City With A That CD & Also A Brand New PS2, A Controller (For Player 2) Madden 2001, Tekken, & Let's Get Ready To Rumble.

[@thetouchback]

Now I'm curious about what CD you went to buy.

[@coryshannon3815]

1:22 every company that made sports games had some dud games, but none will catch up to Acclaim's ability to put out dud sports games.😂

[@will-bp9gz]

We're desperate for another track&field/ olympic game

[@bkzach]

Honestly it does look really good especially for a launch title, I could've seen my younger self playing this for a few minutes before becoming bored or frustrated lmao. I definitely preferred my Lego star wars and star wars battlefront games.