This game is perhaps the best party game ever made. It's a goofy, super colourful sports game that requires just the right amount of skill and luck. It's intricate. It's immediate. It's cryptic. It's simple. It's what sets the flame of competition ablaze in a way that few games do. It's Athlete Kings. Or Decathlete, if you don't play the European version.

I've been playing this game occasionally with my friends since 2016, I think. It has been a journey. First getting records in simple events. Then figuring out how the weirder events work. Then realising how the in-game tutorials are not that precise on what leads to best performances. Then introducing new friends to the game and seeing them break records. Little by little, the good and the bad of the game have become acknowledged as part of the spectacle. Without them, it wouldn't be whole.

As we've played throughout the years, I've made sure that I always have the records backed up. This way Saturn's battery-based memory doesn't wipe years of blood, sweat and tears away. As years go by, it's always a little bigger event to witness new records being made. Some records become mythical. Some feel just within reach. Some are deemed impossible to be broken until they are.

Today, I broke the pole vault record that was made probably 6-7 years ago. The feeling is immense. And now I have to wait for the next time I have someone over that wants to play Athlete Kings again. It's not a competition with one contestant.