Deluxe Ski Jump 4

Ski jumping is not exactly a sport that appears to be very attractive to beginners, mostly because you cannot really practice it without actually jumping down a slope at pretty high speeds. Naturally, it really helps if you are an experience skier, but the technique of flying through the air for a few hundred meters is not the most intuitive out there.

Deluxe Ski Jump 4 is a simulator that allows you to experience the excitement of the sport from the comfort of your own home, without the risk of serious injury and with much less cold air. Thanks to the large collection of hills, plenty of player customization options and the ability to create your own tournaments from scratch, the game should prove to be quite addictive, especially if you enjoy ski jumping.

In the beginning, you have to choose between playing in tournaments or practicing by your own. The practice mode is highly indicated before you venture into a competition, since the actual jumps are not as easy to perform as you might think. In fact, it takes a lot of practice to be able to remain stable and land on your feet after the jump is over, which is why this mode is perfect for beginners.

In case you want to make matters more exciting, you can decide to create more than one character and have them all compete in the same tournament, by giving them different names and coloring their equipment however you want. If you do not want to control each one of them, you can let the AI control them, which should provide you with enough of a challenge to keep you occupied.

From a technical point of view, the game does not really shine, but it does look believable enough to pass as good. The character modeling is pretty awful if you look at it close enough, but up in the air during the jump, everything looks decent. Moreover, the physics engine is quite realistic and the characters even take advantage of rag-doll effects.

Overall, Deluxe Ski Jump 4 is definitely worthy of your attention if you find ski jumping interesting. However its greatest strength lies in the fact that you can create your own tournaments and players, which basically enables you to let your imagination run wild.