Year:  1987

Developer:  Rare

Number of Players:  1

I do not know a lot about downhill ski racing besides the fact that its in the Olympics and its popular in many parts of the world.  I personally have never taken a interest in trying skiing or any of its sporting events.  Since the 2022 Winter Olympics are winding down now, I wanted to get one last winter sports game in.  Going through my library I came across Slalom, one of the original black box games for the NES.  After putting some time into the game, I enjoyed it.

In the game, the goal to race down a hill, avoid everything that is in your way.  Along the way you will have to dodge trees, skiers, people on sleds, mounds of snow and only what I can guess are yetis.  There are also gates on the race track that if you miss going through you slow down.  Each race is times and if you don't make it to the finish line in time it is game over.  This game is broken into three difficulties and each difficulty has eight races.

You control a skier with the camera facing the backside of the player.  You can control which direction you are going, how fast and how slow you move.  If you run into anything it will slow you down or make you crash.  The only exception is the mounds of snow which if you are going fast enough you go into the air and you can perform tricks for points.  I tired this but found it more useful to just avoid the mounds.  Overall I had no problems controlling the character and even though the game is an early NES game, there is a sense of speed as you are racing down the course.

This is a early game for the NES and the graphics reflect this.  With that said, I didn't think the game looked horrible by any means.  The environments, player model and obstacles are look bland, but as I mentioned before, I expected that due to this being an early release game for the system.  The audio is about the same, basic and to the point.  Some of the music grew on me after awhile.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time playing Slalom but I did like what I played.  The game is a simple avoid the obstacles in front of you game.  The game handles well and I never felt cheated when I lost.  I can see myself coming back to this game to try and beat all the stages.  This is a black box NES game that is is worth checking out.