Go snowboarding without getting cold

I’ve never been skiing or snowboarding because I don’t enjoy either the cold or pain. However, I’m more than happy to try it out from the comfort of my armchair. And iSki 2008 allows you to do just that.

iSki 2008 is a snowboarding sim for iPhone which you control by tilting the device left and right to steer your boarder. Tilting the phone forwards or backwards changes your speed and clicking one of the arrow buttons performs a jump. The object of the game is to get to the bottom of the slope, weaving the correct way through the flags and avoiding obstacles. If you fall over more than five times then the game is over.

There are three levels of iSki 2008 to complete and your aim is to get to the top of the high scores table. Points are awarded for successfully navigating the flags and for performing jumps over obstacles.

In general I was impressed by the overall presentation of iSki 2008. The graphics are bold and bright and the animation gives a real impression of speed. The music is soft and soothing (it reminded me a bit of Mercury Rev), although it does get quite repetitive. There were a few little glitches in iSki 2008 that annoyed me though. For instance, it doesn’t override the power-saving mode, so the screen will dim from time-to-time, meaning you’ll need to keep touching the screen. I experienced a few small bugs with the loading screen and the game crashed completely on my twice. Hopefully the developer will fix these issues in future upgrades though.

On the whole, iSki 2008 makes for an enjoyable, high-octane winter sports sim. And the best thing is you won’t get snow in your face!