Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge

The sequel to last years chilly RTL Winter Games 2007 has arrived on Wii at a budget price.  While the name is about as generic as they come, the game isn't all that bad.   Some of the sports are definitely stinkers, but there are some reasonably well done events that use the Wii Mote in new ways.   But, like the name, the game is fairly bland.

There are 9 different sports (15 disciplines) to play and Campaign, Career, Multiplayer, Single Events modes.  While that sounds like a lot of games to play, some are just variations of the same one, leaving about 6 or 7 different mechanics of play.  Of those, about 4 are actually fun.  Before I get into the specifics, I’ll go over the modes.

Career Mode is an experience building, multiple event progression that will take your country of choice through to the awards ceremony.  It pairs together a string of events and totals your score throughout, giving you experience points that you can employ to strengthen your performance in any one single event.  However, it’s merely a gimmick and adds relatively no level of customization, that is unless you are super-hardcore about this game.  Of course, there is no character creation –  like I said, bland.

“The best of the bunch”

Campaign Mode is a collection of challenges with specific rules to beating them; it’s the most fun of the modes. As you beat more challenges, you’ll unlock new ones.  Sadly, since there is little to do beyond racing or time challenges, they quickly become mundane.  But they’re still fun to do, after Career has lost its luster. Multiplayer adds some replay value to the game, especially at a party, and Single Event play will keep you from entering the boring Career Mode.

The games themselves are give or take.  The skiing events, the Slalom races and Cross Country Skiing, are my favorites and work really well.  You hold the Wii Mote and Nunchuck simultaneously up or down, depending on whether you want to crouch or stand up, affecting your speed.  Twisting the controllers will turn you and pulling Z and B will carve you in the snow for a tight turn between flags.  It works great and is a lot of fun, capturing the feel of holding two ski poles with the controllers. In my opinion, Conspiracy Games should have made just a skiing game and dumped the Olympic theme off at the kiddie slopes.

“Curling should be discontinued as a game…period.”

Sadly, the other games, like Curling and Bob Sleigh, are not nearly as innovative or fun. The controls for Curling are extremely hard to accomplish and seem to be broken.  The controls for Luge and Bob Sleigh events are not broken, but there just isn’t much to do when all you do is slide down a predetermined course.  Figure Skating tries to be like Dancing With The Stars, implementing an out-of-place rhythm mechanic;  It works, but again, it’s derivative.

As I’ve already mentioned, the game just doesn’t have a personality like established franchises SSX or Amped.  Excluding Wi-Fi also was a huge blunder.  If you could at least compare records with other people around the world, it would give some incentive to replay events.  And while the menus have some style, and the music helps to affirm that, the game is just not exciting. The best example is the Opening Ceremony, which tries to be cool and MTV hip with these weird camera angles and crowds of fans cheering; but it all just seems like fluff, and it goes on for way too long. Maybe it’s because the developers went with the Olympic theme, but overall the game is just like a weak firework that just kind of fizzles.

Gameplay: 6.5

The Skiing events are a lot of fun and use the controls in innovative ways; but it’s not enough to keep the otherwise shallow games afloat.

Graphics: 6.0

While some of the environments look okay, the human figures are disturbingly rendered, coated with an eerie gloss.

Sound: 6.5

The music is cool, but the audio commentators are horrible and really take away from the game.  Most of the time they just chat and quip at each other, which can be very weird.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 5.0

I’ve never played a fun Olympic themed video game (except Mario and Sonic At The Olympics), and except for a few good events, this one doesn’t change my opinion.

Multiplayer: 6.5

No wi-fi, but split-screen will help extend value.

Overall: 6.0

Some things in this game will hold your attention, but so many of the games, like Bob Sledding, are just plain not.  The game as a whole just lacks pizzazz.