Weigh In - Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge
Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 10:47am by David
Every week, I check Gamasutra’s sales figures just to see what’s popular. It normally isn’t newsworthy, with WiiPlay and Super Mario Galaxy dominating the charts. The last few weeks, though, I’ve seen Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge popping up in the Top 5. Its budget price helps, I’m sure, but is it any good?
Have you played Winter Sports: The Ultimate Challenge? If so, Weigh In in comments!
January 11th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I am really interested in this as well . ..
January 12th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Yes, this game sounds excellent, doesn’t it?
Don’t touch it. It’s a waste of your money.
Let me break down the control scheme to you. Yes, this game boasts an arsenal of 20+ winter games, but they all fall under one of these categories: alternating thrusts, tilting, curling, figure skating, and do nothing.
Alternating thrusts is, as said, alternating thrusts with the Wiimote and Nunchuck. Speed skating and cross-country both use this scheme. If you alternate too fast, your stamina will decrease and you will be forced to boost your power back up and balance it at a certain point. The concept of stamina is broken, however, because the speed you gain from maxing your stamina is greater than the speed you lose. I got beat by a 7-year-old who was taking roids.
Tilting is tilting…very touchy. However, it is the control scheme to the best game, Alpine Skiing. This is the best because, whenever you hit something, no matter how you hit it, your character will try everything to go into fetal position.
Curling is the worst. You’re going to spend at least 1 minute trying to figure out how to get the “Throw” option up, and another 5 trying to actually throw. Perhaps there is a very specific motion, but I have yet to find it. Curling also takes a huge amount of time because you are forced to watch the computer players sweep the board as the puck slides down…so…boring….
Figure-skating is rhythm based alternating. Not to bad, but it’s very touchy, again. Simply putting your hand back in the position it used to be registers, counting as an ill-timed miss.
Sledding…you don’t have to do anything and you’ll win. There’s about 7 games based on the sledding mechanics. My dad and I played them and accidentally skipped the instructions. I franticly tried to figure them out, my dad sat and stared at the screen. He won.
This game is also accompanied by obnoxious load times. For the computer, this makes sense, but for the Wii? That should have been avoided. Especially because you wait to play a 2 minute game for about 30 seconds.
The reward scheme is terrible too. They expect you earn medals just for the sake of earning them. No unlockables…no fun.
Graphics are terrible, too. The people are lifeless and ugly, and there is an annoying bear that follows you to every gaming event…He scares me…
I will admit playing multiplayer with this game is fun, but only with the right crowd and for not for the right reasons. It’s basically like you get to face the pain together. You’ll be rolling on the ground laughing as you watch your opponent struggle with some cross-country skiing while your head keeps getting cut-through by the cameraman.
Overall, it’s a 3 out of 10. Great for one late-night party. Never again.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Good luck finding it. I originally ordered this game through Target.com before it’s release date. Then I got an email from them stating that they would not be sending the title and are in fact not carrying it. Now, I have it ordered through amazon.com and have an expected arrival date of February 11th.