Val D'Isere Skiing and Snowboarding (Atari Jaguar review)

Developer: Virtual Studio
Publisher: Atari Corporation
Released: 1994

Val D'Isere Skiing and Snowboarding is a winter sports game and a conversion of Val d'Isère Championship (1994, SNES).

+ Includes three race types, but the checkpoint-based (and fairly extensive) Free Run mode is the star of the show.

+ Action has a good sense of speed and once courses are memorised there's a certain rhythmic quality to the gameplay.

- Infuriatingly tough to stay on track due to minimal arrow signage / barriers and the rolling hills that obscure your vision.

- Camera is positioned too low to the ground, and you can't always see upcoming flags as you're reaching a hill peak.

- No option to battle simultaneously against CPU opponents, so the entirety of the action is a rather isolating experience.

- Game has no personality, and even your fellow opponents are represented by text names instead of avatars.

- Looks and sounds like a 16-bit SNES title, and there's little that takes advantage of the Jaguar's 64-bit power.