This game is like Tony Hawk: Pro Skater with skis, and it may be your new addiction - SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding Review
SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding has been one of those games for me that once you pick up it's hard to put it down. For this review, I'm approaching ten hours of experiencing all this game has to offer. SNØ is an arcade game similar to Tony Hawk: Pro Skater, in that as you ski (or paraglide!) down procedurally generated slopes you can score points that accrue faster the more you keep up a combo. From close calls with trees or rocks, doing 360s, or performing tricks by pressing a trick button midair, you can quickly rack up points. That's assuming you don't crash out, however, as your skis can get caught in the snow by landing wrong from a poorly attempted spin or trick.
The game at the time of its writing has 3 modes. The first two, Infinite and Score Attack, are mostly catered to arcade junkies like myself who love to rack up the highest possible scores that we can. The last one, however, is Zen, for those looking for a mostly relaxing time skiing down SNØ's infinite mountains. In one of the first updates, the developer even tuned down the danger of Zen mode, so while players still have to avoid obstacles, they can do so more easily for an increased leisure experience. Speaking of leisure, at any time, players may press a button to pause gameplay for photo mode, which allows for nearly any camera shot you'd like. You can choose between having the game's UI on or off, allowing you to show off a score combo or just take a simple photo of the scenery. From beautiful sunsets, to moments where the snow is spraying all around you, SNØ's camera mode is pretty good for taking many types of shots. The only issue is their camera focus, which will sometimes seem to be doing not much of anything despite your best efforts.
One of my favorite things about SNØ is that there's really not any hand holding. After showing off your controls as you start at the top of the mountain, it really leaves you to figure out things on your own. It tells you how to deploy your paraglider, what button to spin/trick, and how to shred the snow, and that's it. All the scoring techniques are left for the player to figure out, as well as how to navigate trickier and tricker terrain as it generates.
Besides the natural replayability of SNØ being an arcade game, it also has a recurring gameplay loop where a glowing rabbit can appear, running down the mountain besides you. If you happen to catch it, it rewards you with a cosmetic. Each mountain's first rabbit has a cosmetic that rewards you with a cosmetic of the same seed as the mountain itself, as well as a temporary score multiplier. You can also continue to catch rabbits on the same mountain, with the rate at which they spawn increasing the further down the mountain you go.
The devs also have hosted an event in honor of their hometown Trondheim, where new skins were added. The game is actively being updated, between new control schemes and optimization for devices such as the Steam Deck. The devs at Studio Gauntlet have also expressed intent to add more content to the game, including adding snowboarding and other biomes including snow parks.
For the most part, SNØ feels very polished, its graphics are very clean and consistent and the controls feel very balanced. Occasionally, you'll hit a rock or tree or land wrong, and it may not feel very fair, but this is mostly uncommon and the physics for the most part are well coded. On the same flip side you may occasionally get lucky enough to clip through something, though this is also the rarity.
I'd give SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding a solid 8 out of 10, it's a lot of fun, and reminds me quite a bit of the Tony Hawk series, with its tricks and unique ways of gaining extra points. You can buy it now on Steam for $12, or try out the demo for free.
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