A very popular sport is Ski Jumping, it’s been a big part of the Olympic Winter Games, and thousands of people participate in it. I personally really enjoy skiing, but have never even considered participating in Ski Jumping, mostly in the fear of getting hurt. But when Ski Jumping Pro VR was announced for the PSVR I was interested to play it, because VR is a great way to try things that you would never try in real life. So, is Ski Jumping Pro VR any good?
Ski Jumping Pro is a PSVR game that has you ski jumping across several different venues. The game has two different modes, free play, and career mode. Free play lets you play any of the stages you want without having to do anything. And career mode has you playing different cups completing levels.
If you don’t know how Ski Jumping works, it’s basically a sport of getting the furthest you can from your jump. While it seems very simple at first, there are several other factors you have to consider. These factors include wind direction, start and jump timing, your balance, angle of the drop, and a few more factors. To have a succesful run, you’ll have to start once the wind is calm, stay balanced on the slide down, jump at the last possible second, balance in the air, aim your skis into a V position, then bring your skis back down and land.
It was difficult at first, but after a while I started to get used to the game, picked up a few tricks, and eventually mastered most of mechanics. The gameplay in this game was done right, and I don’t have any issues with it.
While playing in career mode you can earn money and stars, which act as the games currency. The currency can be used to purchase new equipment, train, and buy sponsorships. Equipment increases your stats, and sponsorships increase the amount of currency you earn while competing. The training section of the menu allows you to spend money on different training styles that instantly increase specific stats. And every once in a while you can train for free which lets you train by playing in a private area.
The game supports both the dualshock 4 and the move controllers. Both of these control styles work pretty well, but I personally preferred the dualshock. The controls are simple, but it takes a while to master everything, because of how fast you’re moving while sliding down and jumping.
One last thing I’d like to mention is the variety in venues. There are 19 different venues in the game, which all differ from each other. Each of the venues look pretty good graphically, with little to no blur. But some of smaller textures, such as trees and humans, looked pretty low in quality.
Now that I’ve discussed each of the aspects of Ski Jumping Pro, what do I think about the product as a whole? Well, I just don’t think this one sport is enough to purchase the game. As a casual fan of sports, this was just a decent game. They did everything they could do with a Ski Jumping game, but while playing I was just wishing I could be taking my skis out onto open hills, or maybe racing against opponents, instead of just ski jumping. This game is fun for the first 20 to 40 minutes, but after that it just starts to get boring doing the same things over and over again. I didn’t feel any incentive to keep playing the game, and I just feel like there isn’t enough content here to justify the price tag.
So overall, Ski Jumping Pro is decent. What it does, it does well, but like I just mentioned for me it wasn’t enough to keep me entertained past the first few minutes. The gameplay, environments, controls, and mechanics set up are all good, but this just feels like it should be a lot cheaper than it is. I would only recommend this game if you really love the sport, or if it’s on sale for a good price. Otherwise, I would pass on this game.
