Slopecrashers Preview – Bird and board

thesixthaxis.com:

What do you get when you mix snowboarding, arcade racing, and animals? You get Slopecrashers, and it feels like a mix of SSX and Mario Kart. Developed by byteparrot, Slopecrashers has a mix of events to play through including races, time trials, slaloms, and boss battles. On top of that each character has their own ratings for things like speed and stunts. The demo I played also showed that there a ruthless and tough snowboarding game to be found beneath the friendly exterior.

The Slopecrashers demo, available on Steam, is quite generous. There is the tutorial which gives you the basics, a short campaign, and an arcade mode that lets you race on the three courses that are unlocked, out of a total of seven by my count. The slopes available are Snowman Slope, Snowy Mountain, and Neon City.

Snowman Slope and Snowy Mountain feel pretty similar, while Neon City shows the glimpse of some of the more outlandish snowboarding locations you’ll visit, with this map having cars driving around that you can hit and the race taking place through a construction site and shopping centre. Already, I was looking out for the shortcuts that would get me ahead of my opponents, though only managed to access a couple.

Throughout the demo, Slopecrashers showcases a decent variety of activities to enjoy. Races can have items included or turned off, with items being weapons or boosts to help in classic kart racing fashion – fireworks to launch at opponents, balloons to lift opponents of the ground, and more. If you get caught by a balloon, there is a bit of button mashing to get free of them. Respawning back onto the track is similar too, and there are plenty of areas where you can fall of the edge.

The boosts include chillis and a rocket that help you speed up, but to really keep up with the pack you will need to hit the jumps and grinding bars to perform tricks, filling up your boost meter allowing you to speed up temporarily. Characters also come equipped with gliders as there are some big