SuperSki II

Playing SuperSki II means staring straight at the back of a digitized skier while trying to gauge the distance to a wooden slalom gate before hitting a tree at maximum speed. Microïds packed six winter events into this 1992 release, offering high-velocity downhill action that rewarded fast reflexes and punished small misjudgments.

Steering through the French Alps in SuperSki II

Booting up this 1992 release places you right into a clean menu structure offering Training and Competition modes. You can tackle the slopes solo or swap turns with a second player to set top times across famous resorts like Val-d'Isère, Courchevel, and La Tania. Competition mode gives you two attempts per event, forcing you to balance aggressive steering with solid consistency.

The core perspective sets this title apart from many of its contemporary rivals. Instead of a side-scrolling view or an overhead map, most events place the camera directly behind your athlete. That third-person view creates a real sense of forward motion, but it introduces a genuine challenge in reading the terrain ahead.

Judging depth becomes your primary hurdle early on. In speed events like the Downhill and Super Giant, obstacles and gate markers rapidly grow from tiny colored dots into solid structures on screen. Turn a fraction of a second too late, and your skier tumbles into the snowbank, ending a promising run immediately.

Six events with wild swings in playability

The event design varies wildly depending on which discipline you choose from the main menu. Rather than reusing one mechanical framework, Microïds built distinct camera behaviors and control priorities for different sports. Some events emphasize precise carving, while others demand exact release timing.

• Downhill: Pure speed down open alpine slopes where staying within track boundaries is vital.
• Slalom: Tight, technical turns requiring immediate reaction to pass between color-coded gates.
• Super Giant: A hybrid course that pairs high speeds with wide, sweeping turns across longer distances.
• Bobsleigh: High-speed banking down an icy chute with heavy reliance on leaning into sharp turns.
• Moguls: A top-down scrolling course where you bounce across bumps and execute airborne tricks for judge points.
• Ski Jump: A unique camera angle where your jumper glides directly toward the screen as you time your launch.

The Bobsleigh event quickly became a high point for many players. The track tilts around your vehicle as you lean into turns, conveying genuine momentum as you slide through the icy trench. Period coverage in Amiga Reviews praised the bobsleigh sequence as one of the most entertaining implementations of the sport on home machines, citing its excellent sense of speed.

The remaining modes fare somewhat less consistently. Moguls shifts the camera to a top-down scrolling perspective, asking you to collect style points over physical bumps, while the Ski Jump flips the perspective to face your skier head-on. Neither alternative offers the fine steerage of the main downhill runs, making them feel more like novelty side activities than fully fleshed-out simulation modes.

Why distant gates divided reviewers back in 1992

When this sports title landed on store shelves, critical reaction split down geographical lines. French gaming magazines greeted the game with overwhelming enthusiasm. Outfits like Joystick awarded scores of 90% and 92%, while Génération 4 handed down a 90% mark and Tilt scored it 18 out of 20.

English and German outlets were significantly harsher on the game. Power Play rated the experience down at 33%, and UK magazine PC Zone panned the title with a low score of 20%. Much of that criticism targeted the strict collision detection and tricky visual perspective, which made high-speed navigation frustrating for uninitiated players.

Retrospective players often compare the controls unfavorably to Accolade's Winter Challenge. Because the rear-facing camera hides the steepness of upcoming drops, predicting optimal turn angles requires memorizing the track layout. While other games offered wider views of incoming flags, this title demands immediate muscle memory to keep your skier on course.

Taking on the slopes right now

If you want to test your reflexes on the snow today, you can play SuperSki II online for free right in your browser. Launching this Microïds release directly requires no setup, letting you test your downhill turning immediately. The third-person tracking shot takes some getting used to, but setting a clean run down the bobsleigh track remains deeply satisfying.