Bored with winning medals, Michael Phelps decided to "dive in" to the video game biz. Get it? (Yeah, we know he's not a diver—zip it, smart guy.) We sat down with the chlorinated super star on the eve of the release of Michael Phelps: Push the Limit for the Kinect on Xbox 360.
A swimming game, huh? What made you think of that?
Throughout my career, I've always been about wanting to change the sport and do things that the sport has never seen before. I think we came up with an idea that is cool. It's not the typical swimming game or Olympic game where you just sit there and button tap.
Ah, the button smash.
You have to get up, you have to try and balance your energy throughout the race. So it's extremely realistic and that was something I wanted.
Did you play video games growing up?
I'm a huge gamer. I don't want to say gigantic gamer but I play probably 2 to 3 times a week. We play mainly sports games. Like Tiger, Madden and FIFA. It's always extremely competitive in the house. Now I can hopefully get good at my own game and challenge everyone at that.
Why did you make it so realistic? Why not: Michael Phelps Ultimate Fuckin' Swimming where you have crazy super powers and fight hippos and crap?
Um, that could be a cool idea for a second version. For me, I wanted to go for realism. I remember a year or two ago in Tiger, I'd shoot a 51 and be like this isn't realistic. Or I'd put up 10 goals in FIFA and be like that never happens. So I think it's cool that the sport games are getting a little more challenging and they're more realistic. That was sort of the gist of everything and I love how it turned out and hopefully everyone else does too.
Break out the digital Speedos!
