The release of Crazy Athletic II brings MAJOR upgrades to the game. It is, in essence, a whole new game, and that's why I feel it warrants updated coverage.

The old
To recap, Crazy Athletics is a fully animated track and field game for the Palm platform. The previous version featured five events, 100m running, 100m hurdles, javelin, long jump, and hammer throw. I'm not going to rehash these events because nothing with them has changed. You can see screen shots of these events in Figure A. For more information on them, please see my previous review.

FIGURE A


The five events from the original Crazy Athletics. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The gist of the game was that you could compete in these five events, either singly, or in the Crazy Olympics series. That was essentially the essence of the game, and although fun, its replay value was somewhat limited.

All that has changed with Crazy Athletics II.

What's new?
First up, and one of the most important for me, is full support for the larger screen, vibration effects, and joystick of the Zodiac. A new event, 100m swimming, shown in Figure B, has also been added to Crazy Athletics, bringing the total events to six.

FIGURE B


100m swimming is new to Crazy Athletics. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The Arcade play of the original version, wherein you can play any single event, or all in series, is still available, but the heart of Crazy Athletics II is the new Champion mode of play.

By far, the biggest improvement to Crazy Athletics is the addition of that second mode of play. In effect, this makes Crazy Athletics an entirely new game.

Champion play
In Champion play, you start with a weak, generic, standard athlete and take complete control over his training and career.

Your athlete has five attributes, arms, legs, jump, breath, and extras, shown in Figure C, that you'll have to build up in order for him to grow stronger and develop.

FIGURE C


Build your athlete's attributes to advance. Roll over picture for a larger image.

No pain, no gain
In order to build up, you have to feel the burn. There are two ways to increase your attributes: to train, and to purchase upgrades.

Training is the cheapest method; it's free. You merely pick an event, do your best, and hope you beat the required score. If you do, the attributes pertinent to that event will go up a point, as shown in Figure D.