Californian street sass and slang is all very well in a game involving skateboarding, but does it fit with skiing? Well Electronic Arts have the answer in the form of Ski or Die.
The game is very similar to their skateboard release Skate or Die, which appeared quite a few years ago, with you taking part in a competition comprising of a number of snow-
Narly Moves, Man!
The game starts with you in Rodney's Ski Shop. Rodney is an overweight, street-
Outside the shop, you are given a number of paths to choose from, which leads to all of the various sections.
Eat Snow, Dude!
The first noticeable thing about Ski or Die is the rather garish colour scheme. The whole game has a kind of PC look about it, with plenty of blue, pink and green graphics around. Many of the events themselves are extremely similar to other games, the Downhill and Halfpipe sections are those that are similar to Skate or Die, the Snowball fight is very Operation Wolf and the Innertube Thrash is basically Toobin' on snow.
To begin with, performing stunts and flinging snow around are great fun, but the more you play, the more annoying niggles creep in. The control methods involved are rather perplexing and often have you selecting the wrong move, picking the wrong view or send you piling into a chasm.
One glaring error is the fact that when you have more than one player using one joystick, the Innertube Thrash places both racers under control of the same stick at the same time!
This is a shame, since without these few problems the game could have been quite a laugh. As it is, it's only for those who either love snow, skate-