Advertising in games has been becoming a large issue for gamers in recent years. Rising development costs have forced companies to find new ways to reduce the price of bringing their titles to the market. While most of us may not like the situation, in-game advertising doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon. I have somewhat come to terms with this seemingly necessary aspect of modern video games, but I still have my limits. When an entire game is made as an advertisement for a certain company or product it comes off feeling like you are paying for a piece of shameless marketing. A perfect example of this is the Kawasaki series of titles that continue to bombard the Wii.
Kawasaki Snowmobiles is the most recent entry into the pay-for-an-ad series of Wii shovelware. It follows the concept of the previously released Kawasaki Quad Bikes, making a cheap and somewhat playable advertisement for perhaps the only system on the market that would allow these games to be released. However, instead of focusing on off-road driving and bunny hopping, Snowmobiles has you racing on powder and doing tricks. Unfortunately, if you aren’t looking closely at the television, which I would seriously discourage anyway, you could honestly have difficulties telling the two apart.
Snowmobiles is as equally visually underwhelming as its predecessor. Instead of drab, poorly detailed, dirt tracks, we are now treated to drab, poorly detailed, snow-covered tracks. There are four characters/snowmobiles to choose from, with no discernible differences between them except for their color. This leaves the game feeling even more generic than expected, since the snowmobiles aren’t even clearly differentiated. You would think they would have at least made the player more aware of what they were trying to sell to them, although I’m not really complaining about this choice.
Fortunately, this game does play slightly better than Quad Bikes, since players will no longer need to rely on bunny hops. Big-air jumps and obstacles that need to be hopped are, thankfully, nowhere to be found. Instead, Snowmobiles is more of a straightforward racing title, with a few ramps here and there to allow the player to perform a small selection of bland stunts. Once airborne, players can hold either the A or B button and tilt the Wii-mote in any direction to cause their character to attempt a somewhat stylish maneuver. There are absolutely no benefits to performing these stunts other than a slight boost in score, so they can be completely ignored.
Unfortunately, even as a more traditional racing game, the controls are still a major issue. Once again players will be forced to use the Wii-mote as a means of steering. It continues to work as poorly as it did in Quad Bikes, and for that matter, in most of the other Wii titles that have tried to use it. Using the Wii-mote like a steering wheel often proves disastrous, perpetually causing either rampant over or under steering issues at every turn. This leaves you constantly trying to regain control of your vehicle, and it’s made even more difficult when you come into contact with an opponent. If you do happen to hit an opponent, which is quite easy considering the tracks are fairly claustrophobic, it usually results in being tipped over or slamming straight into a wall. Analog steering really should have been included in this title, but unfortunately Wii-mote steering is your only option here.
Similarly, players are again only given two options for the game’s camera, either first or third person. Fortunately, the third-person camera fairs much better this time around, since it is placed slightly further away from your character. This allows you to actually see turns before you are missing them, as was the major problem in Quad Bikes. The first-person camera is still quite nauseating, but now you thankfully don’t have to rely on it, since the third-person perspective actually works.
In addition to all of these problems, the contents of the game have also been reduced when compared to Quad Bikes. Sadly, there are only six tracks and four different modes to choose from. The single race and time trial modes are fairly self-explanatory, having the player compete on a single track against opponents and the clock respectively. Challenge mode is a bit of a joke, including three events with four races each. Since there are only six tracks in the game, expect to see some of them multiple times. Stunt mode is perhaps the worst of the lot, giving players a limited amount of time in which to rack up two thousand points. Different stunts will give you different scores depending on the supposed difficulty of pulling each off. The back flip stunt is just as easy to achieve as the rest and will continuously give you five hundred points whenever completed, no matter how often it is used. This leaves absolutely no incentive to attempt any of the other stunts at your disposal. You are also able to shift your snowmobile into reverse and take the same jump over and over again instead of driving around the entire track. This is fairly cheap, but it sure beats trying to actually hit these tiny ramps while fighting with this game’s horrific steering.
Kawasaki Snowmobiles is a real mess and not much fun to play. Also, since this game is essentially an advertisement for Kawasaki brand snowmobiles, the timing of its release seems incredibly poor. I don’t think there are too many people who enjoy riding a snowmobile during a long, hot summer afternoon. I know there may be quite a few Wii owners out there that are fairly casual may not look too closely at a twenty dollar title before purchasing it, but this game is sure to disappoint anyone who is subjected to it. If you have a Wii and twenty dollars burning a hole in your pocket, pick up a virtual console points card instead. No matter what you download, it will most likely be more a worthwhile experience.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 1.7 Graphics
This game looks poor in every sense of the word 1.6 Control
Don’t bother trying to regain control of your snowmobile because tipping over and going in the wrong direction are par for the course, thanks to using the Wii-mote as a steering wheel. 1.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Lazy voice work combined with a limited and annoying soundtrack equals painful to listen to. 1.1
Play Value
With only six tracks and four different play modes to choose from, playing Snowmobiles is much like tearing off a bandage. The quicker it is over, the better.
1.4 Overall Rating – Avoid
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
Game Features: