Winter Games from 1985 by Epyx followed up on the success of Summer Games and brought the sports-Olympics concept to the Commodore 64's wintry setting. Players choose between events such as luge, speed skating, ski jumping, biathlon, or figure skating, and each of them has its own control scheme based on quick and precise joystick presses at just the right moment, so success in one event doesn't guarantee success in another, and a well-rounded player must be able to switch between entirely different movement patterns.
The game stands out with carefully animated athlete figures and the atmosphere of a real winter Olympics, underlined by opening ceremonies with the flags of participating countries and anthems during the results announcements, which at the time counted among the details that turned playing into a genuine experience. Some events, such as ski jumping, place emphasis on precisely timing the takeoff and holding body posture in the air, while others, like speed skating, are purely about the speed of alternating direction on the joystick and the endurance of fingers, which must keep a steady rhythm for the whole length of the race. The option for several players to take turns at one computer was a big draw for game nights with friends at the time, when they competed for the best overall placement across all events, and the final standings were often decided by just a fraction of a point.
Winter Games was among Epyx's most successful sports titles and cemented the format in which the player goes through a series of minigames connected by a shared Olympic theme, a model the studio went on to develop further in later entries of the series. On the Commodore 64 the game remains a pleasant example of what we'd now call a party sports game, and its individual events are still fun even years later thanks to simple but demanding control mechanics that reward hours of practice in each discipline.
Why play it: For a group of players looking for simple but demanding sports minigames tied together by a shared Olympic theme, it still holds up after years of practicing each individual event.
Game 106 of 121 for Commodore 64
