Slalom

• Release Date: 1986
• Genre: Sports
• Style: Skiing
• Similar Games: Ski or Die (Nintendo Entertainment System), Downhill Racer (Commodore 64/128)

Game Description

Take the role of an expert skier in Slalom. As you speed down each mountain skiing at incredible speed, you'll have to avoid several obstacles. These include trees, sledders, other skiers, and even snowmen. Meanwhile, you must ski around the flags properly and do so as quickly as possible. Catch some air on a mogul and perform some exhilarating freestyle moves. Choose from three difficulty levels, each with a different hill (Snowy Hill, Steep Peak, and Mt. Nasty). In all, there are 24 runs and 21 high-score records for you to beat. So hit the slopes as you sit on the couch with Slalom. Skiing has never been so convenient.

Review: Overall

At no point while playing Slalom for the NES will you feel even remotely like you are on an actual ski slope. Instead of feeling that sensation of movement common to better racing and skiing games, it appears in this game as though you are standing still and slalom flags, path obstructions, and other skiers are coming at you. The backgrounds in this game are extremely monotonous, featuring little more than a few purple mountains, some trees, and a whole lot of gray nothing, which presumably represents snow-covered ground. The characters aren't much better; they're poorly animated and drawn with thick, blocky lines. Even the lettering that displays the high scores is blocky and hard to read.

The sound in Slalom consists primarily of a decent, but repetitious back beat complemented by simplistic bleeps and bloops and an occasional song. The swishing, sandpaper-like sounds of your skies as you veer right and left, appear in countless other NES games.

Basically, this game looks like a rush job. Granted, it is one of the earlier games for the NES, before the programmers stretched the limits of this system, but graphically this game is hardly a step up from the Intellivision, a much older system. Speaking of older systems Antarctic Adventure, a similar game for the Colecovision, is a far superior game in every way. The music gives the game a fun, circus-like atmosphere, the graphics are cartoon-like, and even the game play is a step up.

Youngsters may enjoy this game for its simple concept, but it offers little in the way of fun for anyone else.

Review: Enjoyment

Although the controls are pretty good, this game is more primitive and less fun than many games made for previous systems.

Review: Graphics

Blocky characters and simple backgrounds are made even worse by dull colors.

Review: Sound

The sound effects are mostly blips and beeps and the music's not a whole lot better.

Review: Replay Value

Once you've skied down these slopes a few times, you'll hang your skis up and sit by the fire, wondering how this game ever made it into the stores.

Review: Documentation

The instruction booklet is adequate.

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