This Week's Waste of Time

So, you've got Olympic fever, but watching the action on TV just isn't enough to satisfy your unquenchable desire for events you normally wouldn't care about. Well here are a few browser games to put you in the shoes of Olympians without all the pesky sweat.

Box10 Games offers the obvious take on several popular events. Most events like the 100m Race and Swimming involve little more than tapping the arrow keys quickly to become the world champion. If Olympic events were this easy, we'd all be walking around with medals. The Hammer Throw and Long Jump can also be played in wildly oversimplified versions.

There's also a self-described "crude mechanical game" called One-Button Pixelympics. Three events, one button. That just about sums it up. Despite the use of a single button, the controls can take a few tries to master, but the game really doesn't have much stamina.

What does have stamina is the browser classic QWOP from Bennett Foddy, king of the frustrating browser game. I've played QWOP countless times (most tries last only a few seconds), and I still laugh when I play it. What's more, the chances of you finishing the full 100 meter "dash" of QWOP is about as likely as you winning the actual Olympic event. So, in that way, it's the most realistic of the bunch. Foddy also has a two-player game called Winner vs. Loser that is a hilarious take on the hurdles. Sadly he's taken WvL down from his website to make server room for his recently released CLOP. CLOP doesn't involve anything Olympic related, but pretty much plays like QWOP for unicorns, and, really, can that be so bad? Here's the link for Winner vs. Loser just in case that comes back in the near future.

I'm not sure if "fake it till you make it" really applies here, but you'll have fun faking it even though you probably won't make it.