Developed by byteparrot and Published by Neonhive Games, Slopecrashers is a SnowSlope racing Extreme Sports game with Animal Characters.
There are Extreme sports games and RaceKart games but a cross between is quite a rare scene. So a glass raised to Slopecrashers for attempting such a novel idea. My sympathies for the boring result though.
Hindsight is a dangerous drug. It always makes you feel like a cloth trapped on a gutter drain… wet.
Downhill from here
As you could guess from the name, Slopecrashers is a game about riding a snowboard down a snow slope but little did you know, you will doing so as a penguin… Or other Snow based animals. Sadly, that’s as far as enjoyment goes.
From the trailer, I had expected a Tony Hawk Pro Skater type of control scheme but it did not take long for looks to do their disappointing best.
The characters heading downhill are nothing more than cars with the animation of some bipedal creature. Felt like one of those animal mods from GTA5. Just plan disappointment.
I said Cars but it is more so like Karts.
Thank God for Mario Kart
The mixture of Extreme sports and a Kart game is a stretch. The gameplay is just a sorry attempt to make Mario Kart with alternate animation. It even has powerups and other objects to throw at your enemies.
The question then arises… How does that play?
It seems.
All the maps feel the same, the controls are a little annoying to control, and the powerups are nothing more than the DefaultPowerupsforKartgame.file and do not spark any joy.
The only thing remotely unique about Slopecrashers is its ability to let you perform stunts, but even that turns out to be nothing more than a cheap trick. In games like Skate or Tony Hawk, the thrill of doing stunts comes from the very real risk of failure. When you miss a trick, fall off your board, or crash, there’s a sense of consequence that makes each successful trick feel earned and exciting. It adds a layer of tension and challenge that keeps you engaged, pushing you to improve. But that vital element of risk is completely stripped away here.
In Slopecrashers, pulling off a stunt is as simple as pressing a button. There’s no skill involved, no precision required, and, worst of all, there’s no chance of failure.
Once you press that button, an animation takes over, and your character performs the stunt flawlessly, regardless of your timing or control. It’s as if the game is handing you victory on a silver platter, and honestly, it feels lazy. The lack of any real consequence makes the stunts feel hollow like they’re happening just to check a box rather than to offer any real satisfaction.
What Slopecrashers misses is the same thing that makes extreme sports so compelling in real life: the challenge. The heart-pounding anticipation of whether you’ll stick that landing or wipe it out in spectacular fashion.
Here, there’s no excitement, no risk, just a set of predetermined animations that leave you with little more than a sense of emptiness.
No Shame in Failing
Slopecrashers is a game where failure isn’t even an option, mainly because nothing is interesting enough to even fail at. So yeah, you’ll get your stunts, you’ll race your penguin or snow rabbit or whatever they’re calling it this week… but it’s all so devoid of risk and excitement.
In life, time is limited and one can only spend so much time playing a certain game. For that, you must create something worth the time. I am all for testing new ideas but this is not a new idea. This a fake promise followed by a game so lazy, one could create it over the weekend.
In conclusion? You’ll probably get more adrenaline from watching an ice cube melt.
