Snow Crush

Endless runners are pretty new on the video game market, mainly because they are quite simple to develop using modern tools, and the mechanics are usually engaging enough to distract players for a few minutes at a time. On the other hand, the gameplay tends to get repetitive in a rush, because there’s only so much variety one can include in such a simple formula.

Snow Crush is a simple arcade game in which you control a snowball as it makes its way down a mountain slope, trying to avoid a variety of obstacles and getting as far as possible. You can collect crystals and a few other things to increase your score, but the formula gets pretty boring after a few minutes, given the fact that there’s no change of scenery and no new mechanics along the way.

The snowball picks up speed as it descends, which makes it more difficult to avoid the obstacles in time. Whether it’s rocks, trees or the occasional bear, every impediment can cause the game over screen to pop up, and the goal is to delay this for as long as you can. On top of that, you can also collect various crystals in order to increase your score, because that’s what truly matters at the end of each round.

One of the biggest annoyances about the game is the slow response time when it comes to controls, because it takes quite a while for your input to be registered. This is not good news when you think about the fast-paced gameplay mechanics, since the two concepts don’t add up. Although it’s obviously true that in reality you would have to overcome inertia and momentum in such conditions, maybe realism is not a great choice in this case.

As for the graphics, they are about as simple and enjoyable as they can be under the circumstances. Not much effort went into the environments, since they are very repetitive and featureless most of the time, but then again you are usually concentrated on keeping the snowball in one piece, so the visual quality gets a pass when this is the case.

In the end, Snow Crush is not a bad game, but it lacks the polish needed to keep you engaged for longer than a few minutes. Better controls and some variety in the level design department would improve the game considerably, but the chances for that to happen are quite small.