My hunt to find a modern winter sports game that brings back the giddy heights of Lillehammer ’94 on the Mega Drive and the RTL-sponsored PS2 titles continues to lead me down dark paths. I picked up Winter Games Challenge in this year’s Steam Winter Sale at 80% off. I wasn’t expecting too much, judging from the trailer and screenshots, but I still came away underwhelmed and somewhat confused. There are a few good ideas and moments of passable gameplay here, but it doesn’t hang together very well at all.
There are 8 events in Winter Games Challenge for 1 to 4 players to tackle locally in custom tournaments or set cups that will move across 5 difficulties. The best part of the game is that the different difficulties often unlock new slopes to ski down in the Giant Slalom or Alpine Ski, or new runs to tackle in Luge and Bobsleigh. When it comes to the half-pipe stunt events, you’ll get less time between stunts to reset yourself. The ski jumps get larger and windier, making landing and maintaining bodily form trickier. Curling gets better AI opponents who stop overshooting and start playing a bit more strategically. The worst part of the game is that you’ll notice 6 of those minigames come in pairs… and they play like pairs. Luge and Bobsleigh are almost identical except for the launch procedure. The two stunt events differ in terms of input buttons and some slight UI tweaks. The two skiing events are a little too similar to feel hugely distinctive, and the skiing controls are identical. Suddenly, it feels like 5 minigames with some light repurposing.
Once in each game, the graphics are basic but run smoothly, and loading times are nonexistent. The problem is that user inputs have a slight delay on the timing-focused stunt events. You get used to it, but I also had to eyeroll that a white hitbox area is given to a game where snow and ice are the background for 80% of the time. The physics of the Bobsleigh and Luge are difficult to understand, as if you follow the games’ prompts, you’ll be slower than if you do your own thing. Skiing is even stranger. Here, you’ll go faster if you constantly turn slightly rather than going straight down. It makes no sense to my brain, although I found the omission of any sort of crouch button odd, too. Curling is probably the most engaging and tense part of the game. It is quite well implemented, but even here, the UI telling you where your stone will stop is out of whack compared to reality. You do get used to it, but a game’s UI should help, not hinder you.
All of this adds up to a weird sense of missed opportunity. Yes, this game is clearly made on a shoestring budget, but so are thousands of others, and they can get some of these basics right. There isn’t anything fundamentally broken. Instead, it’s just unsatisfying to play and largely absent of fun factor. Yet again, games from over 30 years ago stand superior, despite all their issues and problems, and I’d rather play those again than slog my way through this. Maybe next time…
Higher Plain Games is part of the Higher Plain Network. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. There are additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and downloads. You can also share the website or use the affiliate buy now links on reviews. Buying credit from CD Keys using my affiliate link means I get a couple of pence per sale. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. Thank you.
