Snowboard Party 2 review

Developer: Ratrod Studio

Price: $1.99
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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Hey denizens of the northern hemisphere! It's winter time!

That means it's time for winter sports: Hockey, skiing, skating, and snowboarding. Or, if you're not a fan of runny noses and sore ankles, it means it's time to stay indoors and enjoy some games about winter sports.

One such title is Ratrod Studio's Snowboard Party 2, a mobile snowboarding game (as its name suggests).

Snowboard Party 2 features sharp controls and plenty of content. Fans of snowboarding games will find it very familiar - especially fans who've played the original Snowboard Party- but the game is relatively well-constructed, runs smoothly, and is affordable.

Winter at its most extreme

Like most games of its ilk, Snowboard Party 2 starts you off with a boarder and a course that's easy to navigate. The meat of the game, freestyle mode, challenges you to 'board down the course and earn experience by pulling off tricks.

The experience you earn goes back into unlocking new boarders, upgrading your favorites, and unlocking new tracks.

Other game modes include time attack (get to the end of a course as quickly as possible), big air (perform airborne tricks), and half-pipe (do as many tricks as possible on a short stretch of pipe).

If you're new to digital snowboarding, a decent tutorial walks you through the basics of shredding. The game's controls are also spot-on, making it relatively easy to pull off some pretty cool-looking tricks.

Pay up, sort of

Though Snowboard Party 2 isn't a free-to-play game, experience points still serve as something of a paywall. Experience is your key to unlocking all sorts of new content, including new boarders, improved stats, and new courses.

Some players might not be happy with the fact you need to do a lot of grinding (so to speak) for experience - or else buy it via the in-game store.

But Snowboard Party 2's price of entry still nets you a lot of content, and playing the game is pleasant enough that farming for experience doesn't feel like much of a chore.

The bottom line

If you're down with the idea of snowboarding while staying warm and cozy, take this one for a ride.