Play ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 Online

ESPN International Winter Sports 2002 on the GBA is one of those early 2000s sports compilations that somehow makes button-mashing feel like an Olympic event. You’ve got 10 winter sports to tackle—everything from ski jumping (with two different hill sizes, because apparently 90 meters wasn’t brutal enough) to figure skating, which plays like a stripped-down DDR with ice skates. The snowboarding halfpipe is weirdly satisfying once you nail the timing for tricks, though I still wipe out more than I’d like to admit.

Most events boil down to either frantic button presses for speed or careful timing for stunts, and the controls are just janky enough to feel authentic for a handheld game from this era. The figure skating routine is the standout—hitting those arrow combos to "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" shouldn’t be as tense as it is. You can grind through individual events or go for gold in all 10, but good luck beating your own records once you figure out the quirks.

It’s not the deepest sports sim, but there’s something charming about how committed it is to making luge feel like an extreme sport. The pixelated crowds even cheer when you nail a landing.