Game review: Retro Winter Sports 1986 – a charming reminder of the humble beginnings of gaming
Go slalom skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, ice-skating, bobsledding and curling on your mobile device and wallow in some nostalgic fun
Headup Games
4/5 stars
Like many people of my generation, I love retro games. We’ve come a long way since the 1980s and VR promises that we’ll all soon be gaming in virtual worlds, but there’s nothing like a humble eight-bit release that makes us feel nostalgic for the good old days of gaming.
Retro Winter Sports 1986 feels like a lot of things. It feels like those basic games found in bootleg NES 100-in-1 cartridges. It feels like SkiFree, that freebie thrown onto every early ’90s Windows PC. It feels like every cheap winter sports game ever made, really. But it never feels worn or weary, and that’s a large part of its undeniable charm.
Perfectly designed for mobile devices (it’s available for both Android and iOS), the game offers six winter sports: slalom skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, ice-skating, bobsledding and curling. Everything you’d ever want in a gaming winter wonderland – and switching between each pastime is all part of the clever challenge.