Developed by German studio 49Games and published by 2K (and I-play), it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.

It is the first licensed Olympic video game to be released on a Microsoft home console, since a planned Xbox version of the prior installment, Salt Lake 2002, was cancelled.

That's a big change from Athens 2004, the last Olympics game I played, which required you to hit buttons frantically to make your athlete move.

"[17] The Times gave the game two stars out of five and said, "The result in single-player mode is a messy, unresponsive mass of button-pushing and frantic joystick-twiddling that evolves from impossible to challenging to repetitive and dull in less than an hour.

"[18] The Sydney Morning Herald gave it one-and-a-half stars out of five and said that the game "makes it about as exciting as lying in an empty bath and pretending it's the luge, or sticking your head in the freezer and singing Advance Australia Fair.