Review: Ski Safari 2

Today we are pretty stoked to announce that a sequel to the original Ski Safari is available for download, both on Play Store and iTunes. We simply loved the original title due to its silky smooth mechanics, nice graphics, catchy music and short learning curve and sure enough it was lauded by the mobile gaming community out there. However, Sleepy Z Studios; The Australian indie mobile development studio behind the Ski Safari goodness, has been hard at work. They have put their brilliance to work and have carefully tweaked Ski Safari to include a plethora of new features, game modes, polished graphics and an iteration to their catchy background soundtrack; which btw, is still pretty awesome!

For those of you who are not familiar, Ski Safari is an endless run game that expects you use your skills to escape a menacing avalanche while avoiding obstacles as you come blitzing down the snow capped peaks. You can catch the occasional fleeing penguin or yeti or maybe hop onto a snowmobile to pull off combos while you are busy escaping. Ski Safari 2 has taken the adrenaline pumping action to a whole new level! especially with the inclusion of witty yeti helping you navigate through all the options, menus and gameplay.

First off, you now have the option to choose between two protagonists; Sven and Evana plus the ability to use a spanking new snowboard to showcase your skills and those awesome backflips. You can even perform tail grabs by swiping and If that isn’t enough a selfie cam routinely snaps the action for boasting later. These small but noticeable additions really add to the playing experience and you find yourself immersed in the game. Don’t blame us if you miss the bus station you were supposed to get off at. 😛

The in-game store has also been revamped to offer a plethora of new customizations. These range from clothing accessories to skiing equipment to an impressive selection of rockets, snow mobiles and trail bikes. So you can finally use all the coins accumulated from the endless runs to unlock cool stuff. Most games would start getting boring after a while when everything is unlocked and it is no more fun to collect coins. As always for the the overzealous gamers, Ski Safari 2 does offer the option to buy coin packs to speed your way to unlocks!

However, collecting coins is not the only challenge. Every run gives you three challenges to complete which in-turn increase the combo multiplier earning more score. Of course everybody wants to be a the top of the leader boards. We do however wish that another leader board is introduced that ranks players by run distance instead of just score because every player would be at a different level and run distance is in-fact the only common denominator in determining true skill given that players who have completed challenges have the ability to get a head start by selecting a starting animal / bike or snow mobile.

Talking about in-game challenges, there are a whooping 130 different ones to complete certainly adding to the replay-ability and overall fun. Trust us when we say that these challenges can get pretty intense for example flying an eagle through a cabin requires insane skills. Catching the damn bird is a challenge of its own. 😛

Ski Safari 2 has also added more items and animals to the mix in fact the developers have thrown in the kitchen sink! You can ride penguins, eagles, werewolfs, yetis, mastodons, snowmobiles, mine carts, and even bathtubs and pianos. Quite a few items and animals are stackable for longer combos to keep you going. A few of the animals have also gotten functionality makeovers, now you get an energy bar for eagles telling you exactly how long they are going to carry you before dropping you from the skies, which is especially helpful while you are planning combos.

The original snow slopes have also been updated to add cable car / electricity lines that players can grind Tony Hawk style while snow caves have been redesigned for a smoother user experience. However the biggest update is the addition of more slopes and their accompanying hazards! Completed all challenges in Pengiun Peaks? Well now you can switch over to outrunning tornadoes at Twister Canyon or dodging lava eruptions in Jurassic Lark! Still confuses us why the game is still called Ski Safari though. This is more like decimation safari. 😀

To say the least, graphics on this game are truly stunning with every environment being carefully crafted and each object having its own animations. We also like the zoom level of the game that lets you enjoy these details. Ski Safari 2 also feels smoother and slicker than the first iteration and is definitely worth an upgrade just for the nicely done improvements yet retaining the original game mechanics that we all like very much! With improvement in iOS device hardware Ski Safari 2 makes sure it uses all the available resources to bring you the best user experience possible.

Lastly, Ski Safari 2 now lets you challenge your friends to a multiplayer duel. The multiplayer menu can be accessed by tapping the log cabin which displays all in-game features such as the ability to switch worlds, access the in-game store, changing starting items, tweak settings, view photos. So just incase you have completed all available challenges and unlocked every single item you can match your skills against friends! Ski Safari 2 lets you create upto 4 player lobbies where you can battle for the top position.

To sum it up, Ski Safari 2 is available on the Play Store and iTunes for $2.59 and offers the following enhancements:

Here is a trailer to get you started:

You can download Ski Safari 2 directly from iTunes below: