Horace Goes Skiing
Now this is Horace how I remember him: Going skiing.
First, I’ve got to say the intro was a surprise. I won’t spoil it, but somebody went above and beyond in setting the mood, and I appreciate it.
We come to the title screen and I could take issue with the minute or so I spent hitting every key just trying to select the start option… Before finding that it was Ctrl, of all things. And I could take issue with the only choice under Settings being sound on or off. But once all of that was established, it was off to the ski shop.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Skiing Retro Games.
A little context for the non-Brits out there: Horace Goes Skiing is a game that was originally released in 1982 after Hungry Horace (also available on Steam). It was primarily developed for the ZX Spectrum but did receive a C64 port a couple of years later. It’s a simple affair - cross the road to buy a pair of skis while avoiding the traffic, cross again to get to the ski slope, and … ski. Repeat ad infinitum. It doesn’t get harder over time.
This is essentially a semi-faithful remake of that game built in Unity. It does what it says on the tin - it offers a playable version of Horace Goes Skiing, now in widescreen and with smooth movement. It’s visually almost entirely based on the ZX Spectrum version, but offers up a rendition of the C64 title tune as the Spectrum version’s audio was tantamount to ear rape. It lacks some of the flourishes of the later C64 rendition such as how Horace knocks over flags when he hits them. The hit detection is ludicrously bad.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Death Ski
Fun skiing game for less than five dollars.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Skiing Arcade Games.
I am shock I managed to finished this game, in first sight I was thinking it is kinda retro horror game, but I was wrong, it is not horror game, as the character know no fair, When got traced by deer, wolf, bear, Yeti , skier with gun, skier with chainsaw (!), he give no shxt, he just care if he missed a red/blue flag, what a another level of nerdiness, he rather die than missing a flag or missing the time limit!
anyway, not a bad game for spending me 2 hrs
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Just Ski+
I love the premises of this Unity game - you can choose in fact between better graphics or better performance, instead of the usual stupid “ultra”, “poor”, “medium” and such qualities.
This is a small physics indie game, small even because it’s short, and minimalistic for sure - the whole game has in fact just two colors.
The white of the snow will be the main color of the whole game, since you’re playing as a skier, while the rest of the minimalistic world will be colored of black, red, orange, blue and so on.
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Skiing Physics Games.
Just Ski is fun physics game but it lacks a lot of basic features that you would expect from this genre. As of right now, there is only one map that you have to beat with no save points. It probably takes around 10 minutes, not that you could do on a first try. As you can see I have been trying to beat it for over 5 hours. In other words, you will replay the first section a lot (like 50 times at least). Somehow I am not bored of it just yet. Something about the relaxing music and the atmosphere makes the deaths less stressful.
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
Gustav Vasa: Adventures in the Dales
The year is 1522 and the young nobleman Gustav Eriksson Vasa is reached by the news that his father has been murdered in the infamous bloodbath of Stockholm. Understanding that the Danish king Kristian the Tyrant now will hunt him down, Gustav goes on a dangerous journey through the Swedish Dales.
Danish soldiers are chasing Gustav who flees at high speed on skis, traversing the Swedish landscape of the Dales. Reaching village after village in search of help and support amongst the locals. The setting of the chase is beautiful wintery landscapes in 3D. The villages he visits are presented as a stunning 2D sidescrolling adventure that ties in the main storyline in between chase sequences.
This game was built by Ingeborg Asplund, Stanislav Hallberg, Natali Hallberg, Joakim Bengtsson and Gertrud Bondesson.
Features:
• 3D Chase Sequence:
Tense chase sequences on skis through a wintery Swedish landscape while hunted down by the Danish Soldiers firing arrows from their crossbows aiming to kill Gustav. These are challenging and require the player to take advantage of the landscape around them to avoid obstacles and incoming arrows.
• 2DSidescrolller story:
Follow the story about Gustav Vasa a Swedish nobleman on the quest to become king. The story is based on a real historical figure from Sweden and the myths that surround him. The story allows you to participate in key moments in the legend and story of Gustav Vasa, such as his legendary speech in Falun where he tries to convince the Dalesfolk to rally behind him and his final coronation in Stockholm.
• Distinct artwork:
Beautiful handpainted environments and characters in a distinctly stylized art style inspired by classic Swedish artwork from the Dales.
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
Completion State:
Completed 103/104 levels, 31 with all three medals awarded (75% Steam achievements. 31 hours)
Comments:
I’ve never really played a bridge builder type game but do generally love building games so when I saw that Curve Digital were helping yet another small British studio get a game out in the wild I couldn’t help but pick it up. And I’m glad I did though I didn’t expect to spend quite so much time with it.
I assume most of the tools are at this point pretty rote for fans of the genre but for me the whole idea was pretty novel and interesting. The game essentially asked me to use a limited set of supports, ramps and the like to get my little skier from one side of the map to another.
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game
I love it! The price really attracted me to buy this game and I wondered if it was a case of “you get what you pay for”. In this instance I can say I got a lot of bang for my buck. The tutorial helped me to understand the slight differences in controls to other games of this type but they are very user friendly and after a few minutes I managed to get to grips with all the hotkey solutions as well.
The learning curve is not too slow so each level offers a new challenge and as you progress the challenge continues to grow as well (3 hours can easily feel like 10 minutes with this one!)
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game
That Flipping Mountain
Tl;dr: It’s a masterpiece. If you consider yourself a gamer you’ve got to play this.
That Flipping Mountain is inspired by Getting Over It but it’s not a Getting Over It clone. By gameplay and even more by style it’s much closer to Jeff Weber’s previous game Just Ski and definitely a worthy successor. As such it even starts after the same hut where Just Ski has ended. On from the first tree to over devil’s chimney and the ice cliff to the radio tower it features various elements of Getting Over It in its own style, just enough to recognize and appreciate these elements that have been perfectly adapted for the setting and gameplay of That Flipping Mountain.
– Real player with 31.7 hrs in game
This is - by far - the best rage game I’ve ever played. The secret to its success? It has perfect controls - unlike most rage games, which find their difficulty by making their games hard to play, That Flipping Mountain gives players a character that controls perfectly - at any point they can predict the exact location to which they’ll make him jump - the only thing they have to worry about is making sure that their character sticks the landing. This isn’t easy by any means - it took me nearly 20 hours to beat the game - but the difficulty is entirely fair, and there are no unexpected surprises - as long as the player can master flipping, they will eventually beat the game!
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game