Speed Skating Commodore 64 game

Then came Winter Games for us, who always wanted to try what it's like to fly like an eagle or be a figure skating princess. The game itself is very similar to Summer Games series; when you load the game, opening ceremonies are shown. Then you arrive to main menu, which looks just like Summer Games menu.

The options open to you are the same, with the choice of three competition modes; Compete in all events, some events or in one event plus you can practice one event of your choice. You can also view the world records and watch opening ceremonies again if you like. When you choose to compete in all events, you are asked to enter your name and pick your country. National anthem starts to play, and if you have 1 to 7 mates, they can participate too. When everything is set, the opening ceremonies starts and so does your competition.

And here are the 7 events which you'll be playing:

1. Hot Dog Aerials
The object of this event is to score as many points out of ten as possible by performing a stunt or stunts in the air. You have total of three attempts to try and score full ten. You start from a short peak, with static crowd in background. Press fire and skier will move and fly in the air for a short time. Now you have to perfom some stunts to gain good points. You can do forward or backward flips and other stunts. Landing is crucial. Land correctly, and you can gain high points. Land on your head and the judges will punish you with low scores.
Total of eight judges give you points after every jump, and total score of one jump is the average score calculated from judges scores.

2. Biathlon
This event is a test of speed and accuracy, as you ski up and down hills between four separate shooting points. At each point there are five targets, and here you need to use your gun. Load the gun and try to hit the targets.
You only have one bullet for each target, so don't waste your ammo or you get 5 second penalty for each miss. Control is a fluent left/right movement to make your skier move forward. If you waggle joystick too fast, the skier just slips, and if too slow, it takes ages to build up your speed. At the end of the race your time is shown and possible shooting penalties are taken into account, and added into total time. Winner is the one who has the fastest time.

3. Figure Skating
First of three skating events, which measures your grace, accuracy and coordination within time limit of one minute. Press fire, and the music for your program starts to play. Now it is up to you, how can you perform different manouvers (7 different ones). You can skate forwards or backwards, depending which trick you want to perform. Certain jumps and manouvers can only be performed by skating in the correct direction. You must time your manouvers carefully, because if you try to perform something at the wrong time, the skater will fall on her knees. Like in Hot Dog Aerials, landing tricks are crucial. You can do spinning jumps in the air or different spinnings on ice. When one minute is up, the 8 judges will give you a score and these are calculated in the same way as in Hot Dog Aerials.

4. Ski Jump
Have you ever wondered how wonderful it would be to fly in the air like an eagle? Now you can, with skies. Goal here is simply just jump as far as you can, but style is also important.
Push fire, and your jumper will push off down the runway. Time your jump correctly, and off you go to the air. Now you are in the air, and you must adjust jumper's postion to as aerodynamic as you can. This helps to keep him in balance and you will fly longer. When you are near to surface, do a good landing and try to stay on your skies.

5. Speed Skating
In this event you are head-to-head computer controlled opponent in split screen. The distance of this race is 250m straight. You must waggle the joystick to gain speed, but frantic speed isn't required but good rhythm in time with the skater's legs. At start you have to waggle quickly to gain speed, but once you're cruising it is leisurely strokes that gain the optimum results. Quickest one wins this competition.

6. Free Skating
Extended version of Figure Skating. Now your time limit is two minutes, and you have to perform all possible moves three times successfully. The music played during the event is different and same goes for scoring system used for judging. You need greater skills, as you have to perform for longer time. Other than that the game is same as Figure Skating.

7. Bobsled
This event does have easy controls. Just steer the bobsled to left and right as you hurtle down the race track. The difficult thing is to find the best tactic to gain speed and not crash your bobsled upside down in the curves.
The display shows three different screens. Biggest one on the left which fills half of the screen shows the race map. When you start the race, red line is shown in the race map, showing your progress on track. Bottom right screen shows your elapsed time, and the last screen is a 3D-view of your bobsled and the track. You must watch this screen at the most, to control your bobsled in tight curves. The fastest time will win the race.


Now comes the sad moment, closing ceremonies takes place and the games are finished. Now you can go practise more, because I know that these events require lots of intense practice.

Winter Games is very much like Summer Games. Graphics and even the gameplay is very close to SG, but who wants to change working recept. Graphics are top notch, especially Hot Dog Aerials shows this. Ski Jump is less great looking, and Figure Skating isn't that great either, but both events have good playabilty. Animation is ok, not awesome but ok.

The events are more challenging than in SG series, and that alone keeps me playing this game from time to time again. Seven events is enough, just because they are hard to master.

Like most sports games, also this one is most enjoyable with lots of friends. 1-8 players are supported, so I recommend that you gather as many people as possible, and enjoy this great winter sports game with others.