Winter Games

Winter Games transplants Summer Games' successful recipe into a winter setting and offers a set of events such as downhill skiing, ski jumping, speed skating, biathlon, bobsled, and figure skating. Each event has its own control scheme tailored to the given sport — in ski jumping the player controls the run-up and takeoff, in figure skating the timing of jumps and pirouettes during a routine set to music, giving the game surprising variety despite the simplicity of its individual controls. Biathlon additionally combines the physical exertion of cross-country skiing with the concentration needed for target shooting, which was a fairly unusual pairing of two different skills for sports games of the time.

On the Atari 800/XL, the game benefits from colorful, snow-covered scenery and smooth athlete animation, which for events like the downhill or bobsled track creates a decent sense of speed even given the platform's period technical limitations. The figure skating event in particular, where movements must be synchronized with the music, was among the most memorable, because it combined reflexes with a certain sense of rhythm and rewarded players who could blend technique with a feel for the musical phrase. Music in general plays a bigger role in Winter Games than in the summer title and contributes to the festive, Olympic atmosphere of the whole game, similar to the ceremonies between individual events.

Winter Games was well received after release as a worthy continuation of the successful series and expanded the sports-compilation genre's fan base among players who preferred winter sports to summer ones. From today's perspective it's a nicely aging piece that, together with Summer Games, shows how skillfully Epyx adapted the same design framework to different thematic sets, and it still functions as an entertaining two-player game on a single joystick, especially during competitive evening tournaments among friends.

Why play it: For fans of winter sports and competitive evening tournaments among friends, this is a nicely aging piece that transplants the series' proven formula into a winter theme.