APO Snow Review

I’m a snowboarder so naturally I like to play snowboarding video games. A quality snowboarding game is something that is sadly missing from iOS. I’d really like to see a good console-quality snowboarding game come out. APO Snow has arrived in the App Store hoping to become the snowboarding and skiing game of choice on iOS. I think it’s a really good game and close to what I’m looking for but it could use a few tweaks to really make it shine even further above the rest.

The APO Snow name comes from the actual snowboarding company, APO. I am not familiar with this company but apparently they make their own snowboards, skis and gear. They even have their own pro riding team, all of which are actual characters in the game. The gameplay reminds me a lot of the XBOX game, Amped and that is what I really like about it. Players direct the riders down a mountain doing tricks off of jumps and rails as they go. The controls are simple and allow players to send their characters spinning and flipping off jumps with only one finger. Spinning and flipping is done by sliding a finger left, right, up or down just before the top of the jump. Once in the air, a diamond shape with four quadrants will appear at the bottom of the screen that is used to perform grabs. Sliding a finger through the different quadrants in different combinations will perform different grabs.

While I like that the controls are simple and easy to use, I wish the game gave more control over the spinning and flipping. The rider will spin and flip at their own pace and as many times as they can before hitting the ground. I’d prefer to be able to have more control over this aspect of the game to help vary up the tricks a bit. I’d also like to be able to control the grinds more since the character simply locks on and slides on their own.

APO Snow features several runs that are modeled after real locations around the world. Each run has several different goals and medals to achieve that help to earn cash to unlock new gear, tricks and riders. There is a decent bag of tricks instantly available but those tricks will quickly get repetitive so it’s nice that more can be purchased with game money instead of through in-app purchases.

Overall I will say that this is probably the best snowboarding/skiing game that I’ve played on iOS. While I’d like to see a little better control schema, the one-finger controls work well and certainly get the job done. For $1.99, this is a quality game that has a lot to be enjoyed.