SkiFree

Game: SkiFree
Developer: Chris Pirih
Platform: Windows PC
Release Year: 1991
Stephen's Rating: 6/10

SkiFree was a classic arcade game that shipped with earlier versions of Windows (Windows 3.1 & 3.11). It ran in a window within the Windows environment.

Basic Plot

There is no plot. The game is set on a ski slope and you play the role of a skier.

Gameplay

The game involved skiing down a mountain slope avoiding obstacles and hitting jumps. There were a few different modes of gameplay:

• Free Style in which players attempted to gain points by doing tricks.
• Slalom in which players swerved between flags.
• Tree Slalom was identical to Slalom only longer, there was less room to move, and there were trees as obstacles.
• Just "ski free".

The Abominable Snow Monster...

In any game mode once you reached the bottom of the mountain there was a unique mechanic to end the race. As you flew down the mountain an Abominable Snow Monster would chase you until he grabbed you and ate you. There was no way to avoid him, he eventually caught you every time. It was challenging to see how far you could get without getting eaten.

Positives

For a "Windows Game" this was actually fun and replayable. Each time you did a race the obstacles and jumps were different, and it was satisfying to play.

 

Doing a jump.

Negatives

For what it was, there really aren't many. It would have been nice to have multiplayer.

Memorable Moments

I played this quite a bit. I got good enough to get to the bottom of the mountain with enough momentum to avoid the snow monster for quite a long time. My brother and I played this a lot together.