We had a definite love-hate relationship with event-based sports games in our teenage years. The Track & Field arcade machine was addictive and painful in equal measure, forcing us to mash those buttons until our fingers were raw and bloody stumps. Daley Thompson's Decathlon on the Commodore 64 was the cause of much furiously sweaty joystick waggling (along with the Kays Catalogue).

Torino 2006, the official Winter Olympics licence, is a bit more subtle than these punishing old-timers as there's no mad, key-pounding control system. The overall philosophy is the same, though; it's a collection of mini-games with simple controls that are easy to learn yet difficult to master. That's the theory, anyway, but all is not happy, smiley snowmen in the land of Torino.

The first ski-pole of contention is that there are fifteen events, except there aren't. For example, three of these are speed skating 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m; they're identical but for the length. Not counting minor variations, there are actually eight events: downhill skiing, slalom skiing, ski jump, speed skating, cross-country skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh and luge.

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We can apply some further reductionism, because the bobsleigh and luge events are nigh-on identical, and the biathlon is just a short version of cross-country skiing with two rounds of rifle shooting thrown in. Ultimately, we'd say there were six events with some variations. You could even argue there are five, as the two types of skiing are pretty similar. It's more of a slushy sports day than a full-blown Winter Olympics.

Has quantity been sacrificed for quality? As we've already mentioned, there's no button-mashing in the events, rather a good deal of steering and timed key presses. The skiing is initially enjoyable, providing a decent sense of speed and a challenge (particularly with the slalom). However, it soon becomes tiresome when you've skied the sole course a number of times. The ski jump is well implemented, if a little easy once you've practised for a while.

Cross-country skiing is overlong and a fairly dull exercise in strategically pacing the race, though the Biathlon is more enjoyable because it's shorter and has a touch more variety with the shooting. The bobsleigh and luge events suffer from poor controls; it's too difficult to tell exactly how much you should be steering or counter-steering, which makes them ultimately unsatisfying.

And the less said about speed skating the better. The controls for this are based on keeping a solid rhythm with key presses, but if you lose your place momentarily it's frustrating trying to get back into the swing of things. It made us look like we had all the rhythm of the disco-dancing offspring of Mr Bean and David Brent. Too annoying by half.

On top of all this, not much effort has been made on the presentation front. Graphically the game is pretty solid, but there's no attempt made to recreate an Olympic atmosphere. Each event is followed by a simple scoreboard and that's it. Basics like rival competitor names aren't even provided (they're all called Computer 1, Computer 2, etc., which is so lazy it's ridiculous). The sound and commentary are very bland, too.

Only a hot-seat four player mode has been included, meaning you take it in turns to have a go with the multiplayer option. There are no split-screen races or LAN/Internet options, which again could have made the competition considerably more compelling.

Torino 2006 has very little staying power. There aren't nearly enough events here and half of them aren't much fun. Couple that with the unimaginative presentation and lack of any real multiplayer more, and boredom soon sets in.