I enjoyed the original Ski Safari ($0.99), but I didn’t love it. I played it for a few days, but it seemed like one of those runners that takes forever to get challenging. I grew tired of doing the same thing for ten-plus minutes only to die and find that I hadn’t beat my previous score yet. Sure, the game had a good amount of variety in the different animals you could ride and stuff, but it still didn’t keep my attention for long. Flash forward a few years, and I have to admit this sequel looked pretty sweet. Maybe the gorgeous Alto’s Adventure ($4.99) had softened me up first, but either way, I had to try Sleepy Z’s Ski Safari 2 ($0.99).
From the outset, the game seems pretty similar to its predecessor. You’re still flying down wintery slopes as fast and far as possible, crashing through cabins while riding penguins and yetis, and collecting coins to spend in the shop. In fact, during my first few sessions I was really struggling to find anything different at all beyond the upgraded visuals (which are slightly more 3D than the original). And even still, after playing every day for a week, I can safely say the gameplay really is almost identical.
You start each run asleep in your cabin, when an avalanche pushes you out the door. Soon you’re on your snowboard (or skis if you’re super lame). A simple tap on the screen translates to a hop, while a longer press means slowly backflipping. The physics of jumping and flipping change depending on what you happen to be riding at any given time. Sound familiar? There is one tiny–but important–difference, though: tricks. If you swipe the screen up, down, left, or right you’ll trigger a grab worth 200 to 400 points. You can also swipe and hold to flip at the same time. It’s a great addition to the formula, though it really doesn’t change things up too much. (There’s a tiny bit of strategy in that you can perform a trick to bypass animals and things, but beyond that, it’s just there to look cool and give you a small burst of points.)
Outside of the gameplay, though, there actually is some cool new stuff. In addition of the default snow level, there are two other environments you can purchase with coins: a prehistoric stage with dinosaurs, lava, and stone houses right out of The Flintstones, and a wild west stage complete with minecarts, tumbleweeds, and tornadoes. Each one has slightly different traps and animals to ride, and they both feel a little harder as well. Furthermore, each of the three environments has a different set of missions to complete, which almost makes it feel like three entire games in one (except that, ya know, the gameplay itself is pretty much the same in all of them).
The game’s monetization is fairly interesting, and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. On the one hand, the game is “premium” with a price tag and no icky timers or anything like that. On the other hand, things in the shop are kind of expensive. It’s not egregious or anything, and I was able to unlock the two extra environments after only a few hours, but if you are the sort of person who needs to buy every vehicle and every piece of clothing it’s probably going to take you a while. Those items aren’t strictly cosmetic, either, as many of them come with an extra mission to complete and bonus attributes to make your runs a little better. If you want to speed up the amount of coins you get you can always buy the doubler or any of the coin packs, so there’s that. It’s really not a bad deal since we’re talking about a game that’s only two bucks in the first place, but it’s still probably going to turn a few people off.
The part of the game’s economy I really don’t understand has to do with the Coin Magnet booster. Generally the first thing I do in these sorts of games is buy the magnet and upgrade it all the way, but here it’s just a one-time power-up that can’t be upgraded. That’s fine, I guess, but what’s weird is that it only works for a short time at the beginning of your run, and you probably won’t come across enough coins during that time to make it worth the 200 coins you paid for it. I don’t think I ever even broke even while using the magnet. But hey, maybe I’m missing something and it’s actually an amazing tool. Or maybe it’s only worth it if you also have the doubler.
Ski Safari 2 is a pretty great game. It’s fun, it’s pretty, and it has the potential to keep you coming back for hours or even weeks. You could say pretty much the same thing for the original Ski Safari, though, so if you burnt yourself out playing that one to death then I’m not sure anything here will blow your mind. The game still takes an obscene amount of time to get challenging, but a long list of missions across three different worlds definitely helped to keep me interested. The addition of tricks, a neat little camera mode, and local multiplayer are also pretty welcome, and for only two dollars I see this as an easy recommend–especially if you never played the first one.
