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Ski and Shoot Review for Nintendo Wii

Ski and Shoot Review for Nintendo Wii

You might not have ever heard of it before, but apparently “ski and shoot” is an actual sport. It’s a combination of cross-country skiing and target shooting, and is particularly popular in some European countries. Ever on the look-out for untapped customer niches, Conspiracy Entertainment’s title Ski and Shoot is all about skiing and shooting. To somebody who’s never heard of this sport, it might seem to be a weird combination of activities. And while the sport itself might be fun, this video game certainly is not.

Ski and Shoot screenshot

The premise behind Ski and Shoot is not surprising: you play as one of a variety of international athletes and tackle several ski and shoot courses. You’ll cross-country ski through the course and then come to a shooting station, where you must take out your rifle and shoot a set number of targets as quickly as you can. Then, you hop up and ski off, to repeat the process several times until the race is complete.

There are a few different modes that Ski and Shoot offers. You can try practice runs to get a feel for different courses, test out new skiers, and learn how the game works. You can also start a quick match, which is similar to a practice run by yourself, but also allows you to play with a friend. Finally, there’s career mode, which contains the bulk of the game. Here, you’ll select an athlete and compete in events to earn a gold cup while skiing and shooting.

Up to this point, everything seems like a fairly traditional sports game. Sure, it features athletes that almost nobody has heard of, and the sport itself is somewhat obscure, but maintaining the status quo isn’t always a bad thing for video game developers. Unfortunately, what really kills Ski and Shoot is the complete lack of variety in both gameplay and controls.

The controls suffer from two distinct problems: firstly, they’re not particularly intuitive and, as such, it can be easy to forget what gesture to perform or what buttons to press in order to execute a specific action. Secondly, and more importantly, they’re extremely repetitive and boring.

Ski and Shoot screenshot

My apologies to any cross-country skiers, but as much fun as the sport might be, it makes for a really boring video game. Successful snow-sport games succeed largely thanks to their sense of speed; other mechanics often come second. But cross-country skiing has no speed to fall back on, except for some occasional downhill portions throughout the courses.

The Wii Remote action for propelling yourself up hills consists simply of moving the remote and Nunchuk forward and backward in an alternation fashion. So, you’ll be spending a good 75% of the game performing this very monotonous action. Needless to say, this doesn’t make for a very fun game.

Ski and Shoot screenshot

Though this may be irrelevant, I don’t honestly think this control shortcoming is necessarily due to a fault by the developers. Cross-country skiing is by nature a relatively slow-paced activity, with lots of repetitive actions followed by occasional spurts of slow downhill movement. It’s more the nature of the sport itself than the execution of the sport that prevents Ski and Shoot from being an enjoyable game.

The other major problem with Ski and Shoot is that there’s no gameplay variety. That is, you could play Ski and Shoot for ten minutes and experience everything that the game has to offer. You’ll climb a hill, go down a hill, climb another hill, and go down another hill. And you’ll do this over and over and over again. There are a few turns peppered in to spice things up, but it’s really just the same thing repeated ad nauseum . Even the numerous tracks don’t make this game interesting to play.

While the game is titled Ski and Shoot, you’ll not really be doing much shooting at all. There are one or two shooting stations scattered throughout each course. You’ll see a line of black dots of varying sizes, and you just have to shoot at them until you’ve hit the minimum requirement for each station. The shooting mechanics are simple and straightforward: aim at the dots, hit A to hold your aim steady and B to fire, then pull back on the control stick to reload.

Ski and Shoot screenshot

While the shooting segments aren’t particularly interesting, they do serve to somewhat interrupt the boredom you’ll experience from the skiing portion of the game. That said, the shooting parts don’t last nearly long enough to provide any real entertainment; you’ll probably finish in fifteen seconds, and then you’ll be off for another four minutes of moving your hands back and forth as vigorously as possible.

Visually, Ski and Shoot looks fine, which in itself is something of a success. It doesn’t stand up to bigger-name sports titles on the Wii, but the landscapes, while repetitive, are enjoyable. Also, the cartoonish representations of real-life skiers are done fairly well. The music is monotonous and sound effects aren’t that great – they’re pretty much limited to the cheers of the crowd and a fairly dull announcer.

It’s probably worth mentioning that Ski and Shoot is not particularly user-friendly. The tutorial simply throws all the complex controls at you, but they’re difficult to remember and you’ll likely have to check the tutorial multiple times before you really remember how everything works. Also, there is a skill system that gives each skier certain skills that will help them out during races. It’s a neat idea, but the skills are largely useless and, as a result, the game is simply not engaging.

Overall, the problem with Ski and Shoot is not so much that it’s a truly terrible game, but that the subject matter simply doesn’t translate into a fun gaming experience. It seems to me that the development team put a good bit of effort into making the game look nice; it just doesn’t feel like shovelware as so many other budget titles do. That said, the gameplay mechanic and controls just don’t work out. As a result, I’d suggest avoiding Ski and Shoot. If you’re looking for a skiing game on the Wii, SSX Blur will certainly fit the bill.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.5 Graphics
They’re not particularly good, but they’re not bad for a budget title. Characters look good and animate well. 1.4 Control
The controls are difficult to get the hang of and, more importantly, incredibly monotonous and boring. 3.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The music is forgettable, but the voice work for the announcer is passable. 1.5

Play Value
The game is so repetitive that you’ll likely play it for a few minutes and then never touch it again. Even multiplayer does nothing to improve the life of the game – it’s not even worth a rental.

2.2 Overall Rating – Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Create your own character using the advanced creation system.
  • Make your way to the top in the career mode!
  • Take on a friend and race competitively.
  • Real-life ski courses and athletes!

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