MOBILE GAME REVIEW
Yeti Sports Games PackWinning the winter Olympics |
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The problem with a lot of sports games is the difficulty of faithfully representing them on a gaming platform without the active ball chasing, javelin throwing, club swinging actions that actually make those sports work.
Yeti Sports doesn't really try, choosing to parody rather than reproduce. In taking a tongue-in-cheek approach, however, it manages to be an excellent sports game that can rival almost any of the Olympic titles we've seen this year.
If there's a problem with Yeti Sports, it's the small number of included mini-games, but each is different and amusing enough to ensure you'll keep playing with a gleeful, mildly sadistic, smile.
The first of these four penguin abusing mini-games is Pingu Throw. This is the most recognisable of the Yeti Sports, as it's the web-based concept that kicked off the whole idea of creating an athletic achievement through manually 'helping' penguins to fly.
Pingu stands on top of a cliff above the Yeti. Pressing '5' prompts Pingu to jump off, and another well-timed press sees you swing an ice baseball bat to launch him into the crisp Antarctic sky.
Using left and right controls you can attempt to adjust his trajectory so he slides along the ground rather than nose diving straight into the snow - increasing your yardage by a significant amount.
Orca Slap enlists the help of a killer whale, which flicks penguins straight up out of the water for you to hit with a snowball whilst in mid-air. The penguin is then shunted into a target in the snow bank - its score determined by the position and angle of the penguin when your snowball hits.
Seal Bounce is a take on the discus or shot put style of athletics, seeing you spin a penguin around your snow-white head then launch it as high as possible into the air. Seals watch from the sides of the ravine, and angling the penguin carefully allows it to bounce off the seals and attain a bit of extra height.
The last game, Penguin's Revenge, is a tad baffling, and doesn't really work quite as well as the other three (though it's nice to see the Yeti forced into abnormal flight for a change).
Taking on the role of the penguin, you punch the Yeti off a cliff, then hit him with a catapult to send him soaring into a flock of birds.
You can then attempt to grab birds so they carry you a little farther, though climbing too high sees an arctic vulture (if there is such a thing) snare you and carry you a few feet in the wrong direction. Once you've landed in the snow, three penguins appear with a power gauge and belt you into the clear blue once again.
While the latter game can still be fun, its distance from recognisable athletic lampoonery does it no favours. The other three games are excellent, however, and never fail to amuse thanks to their ridiculous, but very effective, gameplay mechanics.
Yeti Sports is qualified as 'Volume 1', but there's no denying it's a little too sparse to grab itself a Silver Award. With a couple of extra games on the list, the added value would have brought the score up considerably, but as it is Yeti Sports still packs in a lot of amusement from its twisted athletics.
Yeti Sports Games Pack |
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Although it really needs more mini-games on the list, Yeti Sports is good fun and works as well as any athletic game we've seen this year - and considering it was an Olympic year, that's quite an impressive feat
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