Plenty of variety, but most of the games are generic...
You have events such as fire-making, fighting, tossing, pole vaults, races, sprinting, and so on. Some of them follow the Olympics slightly, but they're much different in their approach than any of the events you'll find there. You alos get a small selection of characters. None of them have their own particular stats, but they add some diversity to the game, whatever it is.
The graphics in this game are decent enough for the NES. This simply means that if you can make out whos what, its good enough for the NES.
The gaggle of events in the game are entertaining for the most part and all have their own high score board. The events in the game are:
Fire-making is where you have to make fire like a boy scout and rub a twig between your hands to slowly build up the fire and then blow on it to get it going. This game is a pain to accomplish at first because it gives you little to no direction on what to do and it'll take a while before you find out how to make it, but it's satisfying to accomplish and is great to play against a friend, just don't expect this event to be fun against the CPU.
Fighting is like a 2-D fighting game, but downgraded to the stone age, of course. You can't jump or kick, all you can do is either club your opponent on the head, or club them on the head harder. This persists until one of you runs out of health or if one of you falls off the edge completely or fall through the platform by standing on the edge too long. Although this game is great to play with a friend, this game holds up a little better, but it's only fun for a few tries by yourself before you yearn for something more.
Tossing is like the event where you toss the ball a certain distance and see if anyone can beat it. In this game, its calle Mate-Tossing. This means you take a cavewoman, grab her by the ankles, and swing her around with the left and right buttons over and over while trying to get the right angle to get the right distance. She also judges your throw with a small range of gestures, ranging from dissapointment, to a big Ebert and Roper thumbs up. This can be tricky at first, but it only takes 4 to 5 tries to get it right. This game is great to play with a friend, and its also suprisingly entertaining by yourself.
The pole vault is sort of like the actual pole vault, but this time you have a T-Rex instead of a bar. You can adjust the height and either take gambles or stay safe. Your best bet when playing this game is to play it safe and go low, because the controls are nearly impossible to grasp. You somehow manage to take a spill every time no matter how hard you try. You either go too slow or suddenly fall of the edge without warning. This game is too frustrating to play and isn't even fun when you're playing with someone else, unless you like making fun of each other every time you fail.
The racing game has you and either your buddy or a CPU on dinosaurs and you try to make it to the finish first. The race has plenty of obstacles and traps strewn about, but most of them can be easily avoided. This game is fun to play with a friend, but it somehow gets tedious when you play all by your lonesome.
The sprinting event consists of you and a competitor runnning to a tree to avoid a rabid lion, or whatever it is. This means you have to avoid getting eaten, but there's a few patches of water that you have to jump over as to avoid being slown down. This game is a little bit more of a rush than the racing game and is fun to play both with a friend and with the CPU.
These games offer up some value to the game since you'll be occupied for 1 or 2 hours trying to get the high score on every event. Playing these games with a buddy makes this game even more valuable, but there's plenty of better party games out there by now.
Overall, this game is old, and the premise doesn't lie. The handful of games offered are fun to play and are enjoyable for some time. Nowadays, you can find many more party games, but if you want one for the NES...you have unique tast, but seriously, if you do, this is probably the best you can get.