It used to be indispensable in amusement arcades and on consoles, whether with or without an Olympic license. Nowadays, however, the sports game subgenre of the discipline collections is rare, especially when it comes to the winter variant: its last “full” representative appeared in 2014 with Mario and Sonic’s Sochi excursion. The small German development team Independent Arts wants to fill this gap Winter Games 2023 fill what is basically praiseworthy – but unfortunately the result is anything but intoxicating.
In ten disciplines you compete for victory in a completely unfussy and visually sober manner: Downhill and Super-G are similar except for small details. The same applies to two-man bobsleigh and skeleton as well as ski cross and snowboard cross. There is also the hectic short track, lengthy curling and the duo of ski jumping and biathlon, which is particularly popular in Germany. With the usually simple control systems, there is largely no stressful button hammering, you will find depth or sophistication at best in trace elements – that makes it easier for beginners, but the action quickly becomes boring. The spartan trappings around don’t help much either: training, individual competitions and a few championships are just about the minimum.
