When it comes to sports games there isn’t a vast catalogue to choose from really. We have the yearly rotation of titles across various sports from the major developers and every four years or so we may see an Olympics title thrown into the mix, snowy-based sports are almost non-existent across the gaming platforms. Winter Games 2023 developed by Independent Software GmbH and published by Wild River Games GmbH is now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S and retails for £24.99/$29.99. The game gives players the opportunity to pull on something warm and compete in over ten different snow and ice-related sports.

Introduction & Gameplay

Winter Games 2023 brings a range of events to compete against the AI offline or with friends in local multiplayer. You can play through a series of tournaments or create a custom one finely crafted to your favourite out of the ten events. The events are Biathlon, Super-G, Skeleton, Short Track, 2-man-bobsled, Ski Jumping, Ski Cross, Snowboard Cross and Curling. In addition to this, you can choose from 50 different nations around the globe, I personally chose Jamaica so I could go bobsledding like in Cool Runnings.

You can change the difficulty between each event between easy, normal and hard and each event has a short introductory video highlighting how to perform well during your run. For instance, the bobsled instructions will inform you of how to turn and control speed as you hurtle towards the finish line for the best timings by using the triggers. Everything is super simplistic and once you get to grips with how everything functions, you may want to ramp up the difficulty levels.

Graphics & Audio

It is challenging to say anything remotely positive about the presentation of the entirety of Winter Games 2023. The game is graphically below par across the board, and the animations are immensely frustrating yet laughable. Short-track speed skating had me in absolute stitches as the character I was controller was moving his body in actions that were reminiscent of a frog’s legs, you’d then lose control and slide into the nearby side panel in the same body pose every time. This transitions through the whole game, downhill skiing being another example, you fall onto the hard terrain, and it appears like you disappear into a white flash.

The problem here is that the poorly designed areas of the game are embedded into the core gameplay also. Character control is extremely rigid, and I felt no enjoyment as there is next to no fluidity with the repeated animations it just felt like I was pressing the A button every now and again or battling to stay between the flags whilst skiing as you can’t naturally cut into the snow and weave like in real life. The audio performance was a little better with the announcer echoing around each event, sound effects also aren’t too shabby with most echoing what you’d hear when you’re out on icy surfaces.

In Conclusion

It’s a sad shame that Winter Games 2023 doesn’t quite hit the mark. The concept of playing across the ten events is exciting and intriguing but its execution is disappointing. There are glimmers of fun to be had in some of the events, but the lack of online multiplayer makes for limited longevity and replayability once you’ve achieved gold medals across the game. There is, however, local multiplayer for 2-4 players if you’re looking for something with several of you in the same room, the competitive nature amongst friends and family may increase the enjoyment factor here. For the price point on offer, I, unfortunately, can’t recommend this one unless you’re wanting to really scratch an itch before the Winter Olympics.