The third person perspective sees your Mii controlled either via the remote and nunchuck alone (one in each hand), or combine them with the Balance Board that comes with Wii Fit. The difference is in the directional control. Either roll the remote and nunchuck in the relevant direction if using them alone, or shift bodyweight on the board if using that. Interestingly, the default is putting weight on the left foot to go left, but if you turn the board around 180° so that the power button is at the front, you get a more realistic skiing feel because putting weight on the left foot sends you to the right, i.e. weighting the outside leg. It’s a bit odd at slow speed, but once you get going, it makes perfect sense.
In either setup, the remote and nunchuck are used like ski poles to shove off, go uphill and tuck in to schuss (go fast). Different nuances can be applied with buttons to snowplough (go really slow like a novice) or stacked compression turns for moguls (absorbing huge bumps with rapid pumping leg movements). Whilst airborne, a combination of button pushes and arm waving initiates various tricks.
Both methods work really well and the sensation that the Mii is actually skiing properly is fairly robust. Using the board takes longer to perfect, so if you have it available, it’s highly recommended for the easier first half of the challenges and then switching to the hand-only method later on.
The piste map can be accessed at any time, allowing a quick teleport to the top of the ski-life of choice. However, skiing over to the bottom of a ski lift allows you to ride the chair all the way to the top in real time. This will be crazy alien stuff to most gamers looking for quick thrills, but give it a go. Look around. Enjoy the view. Be glad the blizzard hitting your face isn’t real! There’s even an amazing rumble as the chair clamp passes through a pylon guide. There's even a selection of cheesey tunes playing in the background which is an essential part of any skiing trip! In a way, the ability to ride the chair-lift all the way encapsulates the whole ethos of Family Ski. The developers have gone out of their way to bring the best bits of skiing to try out in the home.
On the way back down the hill, there’s huge variety of virtual snow and ice and looks better than any we’ve seen before. Lower down the mountain, there’s trees to aim between and further up, there’s moguls. Want to ski at night? No problem – floodlit slopes adorned with twinkling Christmas trees await and amazing views down the mountain from the top to the village below. There are narrow winding “road” type pistes and huge open expanses and jumps are scattered around everywhere to liven things up. The only thing missing is the ability to go off piste, even a little.
The slopes are populated with other Miis of all abilities, some of them just standing around chatting on the slopes, others going for it down the hill and yet more are standing waiting to dish out challenges. They move around the resort though, so you have to ski around randomly to find them, which at first is great so that you really learn the mountain, but later becomes annoying. Races, timed penalty slaloms, moguls tests, trick tests and skill tests (stop in the zone within the time limit) are among the expected types, but there’s also some more unusual ones, like picking up dropped mobile phones, delivering pizza to a location that you only get to glance at and may have to take a lift to get to, getting wedding gifts to a ceremony at the top of the mountain and finding the lost child. However, they are too easy to start with and only really get interesting once the harder phases are obtained.
What we really longed for after a few days play time wasn’t more challenges, but more pistes and resorts to ski in, because it's the skiing that makes the game. Much like real skiing, one resort area is enough for a week, but then you get bored and want to either go off-piste or try somewhere else. The challenges will keep you playing longer, but are really just a diversion and the real joy comes in that initial period while you learn to master the mountain.
The good news is that all the lifts are available from the start so, with the main draw being the skiing itself, you can enjoy mucking around on the 14 pistes wherever and whenever you want. At the end of each piste, performance is graded (speed, style, quality of turns and NOT hitting other skiers), so even when avoiding the challenges, there’s still something to aim for.
Up to four skiers can enjoy carving down the mountain together in local split-screen which at first sounds like a great feature on a game that concentrates on the actual skiing experience, but just like real life, you are always hanging around for someone slower, or wishing you were faster. The reality is that longevity is limited to how much the player enjoys swooshing down the snow in the solo game and for some this isn’t going to be enough. A beautiful experience, while it lasts.