I've seen many comments of people clamor that the London 2012 video game was much better than the Tokyo 2020 (My Review) game. In the end, I feel the events play about the same between both titles. What London 2012 DOES have is a presentation that more accurately represents the televised sport, as opposed to the "Mario Sports" nature of Tokyo 2020.

What London 2012 does MUCH better is the authentic Olympics presentation with the game's attention to small details. For one, this game actually has a live commentator that speaks throughout the entire event, from the startup all the way to the victory ceremony. The replay transition is clean with the commentary. During the victory ceremony, even a snippet of the winning nation's national anthem will play with the flags raised! There's much more background noise as well, such as a background loudspeaker commentator. Also, Beach Volleyball is fully voiced, and all players will actually say stuff like "Get that!" or "Mine!". It's also worth noting that London 2012's characters are more realistic compared to the stylized characters used in Tokyo 2020. All of this adds up to actually make you feel like you're part of the televised sporting event!

I'd also like to point out the transitions from the menus to the event really highlight the personality of this game. This game uses a lot of bold and vivid vector designs, that eventually form up to look like the sports venue which then seamlessly transitions to the actual stadium. The music is constantly motivating with a combination of uplifting strings and electric guitar. It's certainly not as unique as Tokyo 2020's "One" motif theme (link), but it's still enough to get you pumped for each event.

London 2012 boasts 31 events compared to Tokyo 2020's 18 events, but gameplay-wise there is even less variety. This is because each variation of the same discipline is counted as a different event, as in all 5 of the swimming disciplines when the only gameplay difference is how you tilt the sticks. Even so, Freestyle and Backstroke control the exact same way! There's not much depth to most of the games, with many that could pass as a Mario Party minigame. However, there are a few sports in this game that isn't in Tokyo 2020 that are pretty good, such as Archery, Skeet Shooting, and Canoe Slalom obstacle course. There's also has a party mode where you can play a couple of sports with non-Olympic rules, such as Rapid-fire Archery or Skeet Shooting with endless targets. Still, even though Tokyo 2020 has fewer advertised sports, they all play vastly different asides from the track events.

It's worth noting that the male and female events are all separate, in comparison to Tokyo 2020 making everything Co-ed. However, there are FAR more exclusive male sports, whereas the only exclusive female sport is... Beach Volleyball. Yep.

It's also worth noting this game has a single-player campaign where you take a nation and play through a variety of events of your choosing to compete for as many medals as you can earn in 16 days. The events can only be pulled from a limited selection, and you have limited retries if you mess up.

Pick up this title if you really want to feel like a virtual athlete in the Olympic games, as it's the Olympics video game that I feel best nails the authentic presentation. Otherwise, for parties, I'd highly recommend Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games on the Wii instead with much more event variety, fun working motion controls, and up to 4 players simultaneous multiplayer.