Developer: Namco Bandai

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Release Date: May 13, 2008

System: Wii

ESRB Rating: E

Official Web site

0:00 I picked this one up mainly to see if it could improve on the overly touchy performance of the "Slalom" mini-game in Wii Fit. I'm hopeful that it can ... after all, Namco's Alpine Racer arcade series is one of my all-time favorites.

0:05 This first five minutes spent getting my Wii Balance Board out of its box, inserting the batteries, and struggling to get it synced to my system. My Wii Fit regimen has, er, lapsed a little bit.

0:09 The game requires 81 blocks of space for save data? What is it using all that space for? Anyway, this means I have to copy Strong Bad to my SD card and delete it, which takes a surprisingly long time.

0:10 Finally ready to go. A snowy title screen comes in with some winter bells and a children's chorus screaming "WE SKI!"

0:11 "Lean your body to the left and right to turn." Doesn't get much simpler than that.

0:12 The menu background music is a bit too wacky for me. It's like a kids' version of Phillip Glass.

0:13 Ski School says it covers the Wii remote/Nunchuk-based controls, which I guess means Balance Board users don't need it? I'll just go straight in to Ski Race. Here's hoping it's as simple as it seems.

0:14 The game asks me to plug in the Nunchuk, even though I'll be using the Balance Board. Hmmm...

0:16 Wow ... that was almost stupidly simple. Just leaning slightly on a mostly straight course. It's very slow-paced -- I have trouble speeding up or slowing down independent of the mountain hills. The laning c ontrols seem responsive enough, though, and less touchy than those in Wii Fit. Only one racing opponent? Kind of dull so far...

0:18 Level 2 is a little more interesting, with a few gently sloping curves, but for the most part it's about simply staying straight to keep my speed up. Bleh.

0:21 Jumping ahead to Racing Level 10 (of 20). This one's much more exciting, with some tight turns that require real steep leaning. I lose all my speed on a small uphill section, though, and I'm seemingly powerless to fix it. I finish a few seconds back from my opponent. Let's try that again...

0:24 A stroke of inspiration! When I see my opponent using his ski poles to accelerate, I instinctively swing my arms to do the same. Surprisingly, my on-screen character reacts, pushing forward with a small burst of speed. Now I understand why I was going so slowly. The revelation comes too late to help me in this race, but I'll do better next time...

0:27 I'm finally able to catch up and pass my opponent, thanks mostly to constant ski pole pushing in the back stretch. This is getting tiring! The constant pushing isn't really fun, either...

0:28 The ski pole revelation/fiasco has convinced me to go back to Ski School, to see what else I might be missing.

0:31 So far it's only telling me what I already know ... how to turn and how to use the ski poles to "skate." At least the tutorial moves quickly.

0:34 "Snow plowing" and braking are good ways of slowing down, but I'm looking for ways to SPEED UP!

0:36 Here we go ... by twisting the Wii remote and Nunchuk out, I can crouch down to gain some speed. The game recommends that I actually crouch when I do this. It's a bit odd that the Balance Board can't detect that I'm crouching or leaning forward.

0:38 Heh ... I like the "wedeln," the little quick turns you see skiers using in the Olympics. I have to hold down B and Z and then shake my rump real quickly back and forth to keep my balance. Hee-hee. Rump.

0:40 The mogul tutorial course is pretty easy. As long as I hold the wedeln buttons, it seems near-impossible to fall. Seems like the game is pretty forgiving here.

0:41 Yikes! The "getting up" tutorial first throws me to the ground with an EPIC fall. I must have done five somersaults in the air before crashing down. OUCH!

0:44 Back to the slopes now that Ski School is done. It's amazing how much the crouch technique helps my racing times. I have to let up for sharp turns, and I have to use the ski poles on a brief hill, but otherwise I'm crouching and flying in the lead the whole way. Ain't it amazing what knowing the controls can do!

0:46 I'm running low on time, so I jump to Race Level 20. It's ... the same exact short course as Level 10, only now my opponent is a little faster. I lose by two seconds and my Mii character makes a cute, frustrated face. Would a little more course variety be too much to ask?

0:48 On to the slalom. I have to weave my way through six relatively narrow gates. I get a five-second penalty for missing one, but I still easily finish level 1 within the time limit. A little harder, please?

0:50 Level 5 is a shorter version of the course I've gone through so many times in the races, but the addition of the slalom posts makes it a lot more fun, actually. I'm actually starting to get into the swing of this.

0:52 On Level 10, I miss the first two gates and then the last two as well. There's a technical challenge here that just wasn't present in the racing sections.


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0:54 I only miss one gate this time around (my braking training pays off) but my overly careful skiing puts me seven seconds behind the target. Seems I have to be fast AND accurate. Tough!

0:57 A dozen or so quick, frustrated retries later and I seem to be doing worse with every attempt. Am I getting tired? Already?

0:58 Real quick, I jump into the Level 3 moguls. Apparently I can do tricks in midair by swinging the Wii remote and Nunchuk. Who knew? I get a "C" ranking overall because I didn't land my tricks cleanly and because I was a little slow down the course.

0:59 My second attempt gets a perfect "S" rating, with an "S" or "S+" on every sub-ranking. Verdict on moguls: fun but a little easy.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.

Why? Would add some much-needed variety to my lapsed workout routine, and the slalom section is genuinely tough and interesting. I wish there was more track variety, though.

This column is based on a retail copy of the game rented from GameFly.

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