Ski or Die (1990, EA)

[Tijn]

#3952

I just played some Ski or Die. It has a cool vibe and the graphics are pretty nice too. The game also plays pretty smoothly, so that’s nice. I get the impression the game is mainly aimed at local/hotseat multiplayer though, as I’m not sure there are AIs to compete against? So playing this on my own, I wasn’t really sure how well I was actually doing since there’s nothing to compare it against haha.

The ski jumping is pretty cool and I was actually managed to do some stunts and land successfully. The downhill skiing is more frustrating because the perspective is very weird. You view your character from the front, but if you press left he goes visually left, but it’s actually their right. I can’t cope with this sort of stuff haha.

The other minigams are fun too (snowball throwing anyone?) but they’re not on skis, so they don’t count.

[Mike]

#3957

Ok, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one frustrated by the downhill skiing. Is there a way to jump? Otherwise it seems like you’re just going to fail if you don’t go down the right path?

The ski jumping is definitely a lot more interesting.

But I’ve always had a hard time with this series. Even Skate or Die on the NES, which seemed to be a pretty big game, always felt like a mixed bag of minigames to me too.

[Zagrebista]

#3967

You can definitely jump by pressing fire (on joystick anyway) but it seems your skier only does it when there’s a jumping opportunity (e.g. a ledge).

I managed to make it to the end of the downhill ski section (in practice mode, anyway) but the controls make it a bit of a slog.

[TigerQuoll]

#3997

There’s a lot I like about this game. Well, OK, mainly the charm. This game is charming as heck. There’s a lot of creativity there in the types of events they went with, and each one has heaps of cheeky, whimsical touches.
But yes, the controls in the downhill event in particular are absolute balls to get used to. I imagine when I get a feel for them it would be fine though.