Another one found through the discovery queues of Steam, SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding looked to offer simple joys of carving through snow. Racking up points or just enjoying the procedurally generated mountains. Studio Gauntlet have a great core in place. One which is easy to control. As a points chaser, it succeeds at instilling the just one more go mindset, no matter the mode played on.
The Infinite Run mode has no limit on distance, testing how long a person can last while chasing those points. Score Attack mode sets a limit on the distance travelled before a run ends. And Zen mode removes the points so a person can just enjoy the mountain ride. In hitting retry after ending the run, a new mountain is generated. Providing new slopes, new obstacles, and even a new time and weather.
For a person who wants everyone to be restricted to the same conditions, there’s Peak of the Week mode. Here, there’s a set mountain, a set equipment, and a locked distance in which to chase those points. This mode is where I was introduced to the sitski, something that seems very improbable in reality. Along with that are the normal skis and the snowboard to rip down the mountain.
With the mountain being procedurally generated, each is running off a code that can be saved at the end of a run. The game even allows generating your own mountains through entering whatever you want into the mountain generator. Naturally, I had to put DarkRula in there, which resulted in a night time mountain run. There’s definitely fun had in seeing what different words generate.
When it comes to the runs themselves, the controls are easy. Just one trick button, along with the analogue stick for doing flips and barrel rolls. Doing tricks are just one way to get points, with the other involving quick reactions to slip right on by the trees and rocks and other obstacles of the mountain. Even the photo mode is easy to get into with just a single shoulder button press. And easy to use, as well.
Being a minimalistic game, SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding is still able to provide some greatness with its graphics. Bright and vivid in the sun. Very grey and diminished visibility during a snowstorm. And great contrasts between the darkness and the headtorch lighting the way of a night. The standard viewpoint is what I’ll always be sticking with, but there’s a first person view for those who want the immersion. And what feels a top down viewpoint, or at least one very pulled out from the standard one.
With a great core behind it, SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding is a game I can easily recommend. It’s very arcade-like nature in point chasing can easily invest me in spending many runs getting a feel for the best routes to hit the high scores. Not that I’d ever top the leaderboards in any of the modes, but personal improvement is good all the same.
Images Taken From:
SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding | PC
