We Ski – Review

g-weski200We Ski

(Namco Bandai for Wii)
By Mike Delano

Some things are a given, it seems, with Wii games. It’s going to be cute. It’s going to look bad unless you’ve never played anything beyond first generation PS2 games. And amidst the sea of shovelware clogging the market, if it’s not Nintendo-produced, it has a lot to prove. While We Ski makes good on the cute and graphically-underwhelming departments, it gets by on what is the saving grace of dozens of otherwise throwaway Wii games: Great use of the motion-sensing controls. Boiling it down to its most basic reason for existence, it’s fun to ski in We Ski. The motion controls are very responsive (only jamming the remotes up and down for speed is a little wonky), so turning or performing rudimentary tricks is easy. The Happy Ski Resort location and overall light tone of the game is appropriate for its purely pick-up-and-play style, and if you really become enamored with the gameplay, the mission-based approach of the single-player campaign is an unexpectedly engrossing way to improve your skills. For most visitors to these slopes, though, a few runs down the trails will be enough.
(www.namcobandaigames.com)