Alpine Racer Review
Man, I can’t believe just how few skiing/snowboarding games there are for this device. It seems that with the high quality screen and simple tilt control scheme you’d have as many of these as you do “Match 3″ games… okay that would be way to many, but you get what I’m saying.
I’m not a huge fan of these types of games… Even though I live in Utah (Greatest Snow on Earth!) I’m not really a skier, but I like a game with speed as much as the next guy and with snow and mountains you get great visuals and when you can do jumps you’ve got crazy tricks. I have played a lot of SSX Tricky so I guess that’s as close as I get to the slopes.
I was pretty excited to see Alpine Racer hit the store, especially since it comes from Namco. That name alone brings along many happy memories of early video gaming. So I fired up my iPhone and settled into a good long night of “fake” skiing.
First off, I have to mention that I really loved the controls for this game. I didn’t quite get them at first but one I did I found this to be one o the best “racing” control schemes. Basically I was able to just put my left thumb on the screen and with a slight roll of the thumb to either side the skier made nice turns. It was a lot like the left thumb button on the PSP. It wasn’t long before I was wondering why more games don’t do this.
Alpine Racer also gives you a good sense of speed with the game. This is a must in any type of racer game and Namco pulls this off pretty well.
But all is not perfect with Alpine Racer. If you look a few paragraphs above you’ll notice that I mentioned reasons why skiing games would be great on this format. The problem is, Alpine Racer really didn’t do anything with them.
Graphically this game looks like it comes from the originally Playstation. The game’s mountains look a little flat and the snow really doesn’t do anything for me. A lot could have been done in this area and it seems like no much was tried.
Also missing, are those crazy jumps that we’re used to seeing after games like… well, every other game that has jumping snowboarders. I took my first big jump and was looking for something to let me do some twists and it never came. All I could do was watch as my player fell to the flat earth below.
But, really, I could forgive all this when I saw that there was a “story mode”. But that forgiveness turned to spite when I realized that this so called “story” consisted of three races. You first race by yourself. Then suddenly you’re in the semi-finals. In this race you go up against your sibling (depending on if you started with the boy or girl player). Then you race in the finals against… spoiler alert… your dad. When you win the credits roll and that’s it. Pretty weak.
Luckily the Time Trial mode gives you a little more to do and a few more unlockables.
You also get some achievement points that you can put into various categories, but with a game this short it’s hardly worth it.
All in all the game isn’t bad, it’s just that when you see Namco’s name on it you expect a whole lot more. There is a nice control method and good speed, but that’s really not worth the full price at the moment. Look for some updates to hopefully make this game a little fuller. Until then you’ve got the Lite version if you really need to get your ski on.
The Good
Good Control
Good sense of speed
Time Trial mode is niceThe Bad
Storyline is too short
Not quite what we expect from Namco
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Category: Games
congrats to luke the winner of the free app!
thank you so much! it turns out i like the game much more than i thought!
the graphics are pretty good but ive been told the gameplay is bad. Oh well, I still think it looks fun.
looks like a really solid game. I would like to try it out some time, but only when i have alot of spare cash.
it seems like it would be alot of fun but i think it is pretty expensive.
hmm…most people with this game told me its not very good but it seems pretty decent. Would be fun to see what its like.
hmmm…… seems like an ok time killer….. other than that, i would never pay the full asking price for this app
namco….interesting…..
It looks like a great snowboard game.
More tracks and scenary will be great. People will love different landscapes when snowboard.
i love these kind of games. the lite version is pretty cool. I like the controls. the 6$ price tag seems a little high though..
For a $6 game there should be more than 3 damn races in story mode.
This looks fun and addicting. Its just like SSX Tricky for the playstation 2 and it was fun. Its addicting
Cute, but I wish the story mode was a bit longer, especially for a $5.99 game!
It sure is snowing pretty hard right now in the Seattle area!
lookin forward to a skiing/snowboarding game for the iphone and ipod touch
I see what you’re saying about the quality of the graphics. They’re not really up to the standards being set by other games/developers on the iPhone platform. Combined that with the thin, repetitive content, we get a game that I’m personally not about to shell out $5.99 for (current price). I might give the Lite version a look-see just to see if the general impression is wrong.
Nothing like a game with snow, just in time for spring!
i also havent heard many praises of this game. Your review seems somewhat favorable though. It would be nice to see what its like.
looks like a fun snowboarding game! too bad its so short
I haven’t heard amazing things about this, and it would be fun to try it out and see what I think of it.
i think the graphics on this app is pretty solid
i love it .. its realistic ski … you can jump race .. and do everything cool .. i also like the graphic … but its really fast .. there are many ways you can take .. you have to tilt really fast … also its not easy to jump …
i never know when iam in the air or not .. i always fell down ( ..
all this is only from lite version
first of all the alps is the number one snowspot for all you us haters(LONG LIVE ITALY)
second this seems like a little fun game i would spend oh about 1 hr max on then never play agian that being said i might really enjoy it and play alot as a found out when i bought geo-defence(i know is spelled wrong) so this game looks like it might have potential if they up the graphics
First and foremost, I think I must disagree about Utah having the best snow. Great mountains for sure, but backcountry in Colorado will win over any day for me!
Regardless, the game in question seems have been taken out of the oven a little too early. You said there was a ‘lite’ version of the game. It seems like the “full” version is just a little too short and not fully developed. Excited about the control scheme, as you don’t also want have to use tilt controls.
I think you said it perfectly that it is not a bad game in generally, just doesn’t seem to live up to previous Namco standards.