Bode Miller Alpine Skiing (PlayStation 2)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.9 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Ryan Davis
• Reviewed on: 04/25/2006
• Released on: 02/06/2006
• Originally published on GameSpot: Bode Miller Alpine Skiing (PlayStation 2) Review

The sense of disappointment in alpine skier Bode Miller's performance at Turin, Italy is becoming one of the most memorable points of the 2006 Winter Olympics for many American fans. Confidence in Miller was extremely high leading up to the winter games, and those that followed them will recall a bombardment of high-profile endorsement deals. In addition to credit card companies and shoe manufacturers, one of the dotted lines Miller put his ink to belonged to video game publisher Valcon, which in turn shipped Bode Miller Alpine Skiing just before Miller started partying and socializing on an Olympic level. Even if he had brought home the gold, it wouldn't have changed the fact that his skiing game is a shallow cash-in on athletic idolatry.

Unlike Jonny Moseley's Mad Trix, the last dedicated skiing game to garner any attention, Bode Miller Alpine Skiing features no trick systems, exotic locales, or preposterous atmospheric conditions. Instead, it offers a very straight-laced take on the World Cup, which consists of four different disciplines--downhill, slalom, giant slalom, and super-g. All four events ultimately boil down to moving through gates as you speed down the hill, though course layout and gate placement can make a big difference in how you approach the different events. The incredible discipline, breakneck speed, and naked sense of danger that define the tone of real-life alpine skiing could've made this a really intense experience, but the gameplay is stripped so bare that all of that potential goes to waste.

An oscillating power meter will determine how quickly you'll come out of the gate, and you can use the circle button to perform small hops, which can be of occasional use during some especially tight slalom turns. The rest of the time, though, you'll be gently rocking the left analog stick back and forth to control your skier's direction. That's it. Leaning up or down on the stick doesn't even have an effect on your skier's stance. The controls are responsive enough, and it can keep your attention as you figure out how to approach the different event types, but once you learn the rhythms, the game loses any sense of challenge, and then the monotony sets in.

It doesn't help that the various locales you'll ski at, which range from Korea to Austria, are virtually indistinguishable fields of snow, trees, and colored plastic netting. The skiers themselves don't sport an incredible amount of detail, but they do animate rather nicely, naturally shifting their weight and haphazardly tilting their poles out as they take sharp turns and tucking in for the long straightaways. The skis don't carve into the snow very convincingly, though, and the snow itself has a grainy quality to it that makes it look a little more like sand.

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