Fresh Tracks

When it comes to video games, skiing as always gotten the short end of the stick. Oh sure, there are games like Slalom and Horace Goes Skiing, but hitting the slopes in the 21st century almost always means snowboarding. At most, we’ll see a franchise add skiing as what feels like a complete afterthought. But with the new game Fresh Tracks, skiing is once again cool. It’s an infectious mix of catchy songs, fantasy action and extreme sports, all wrapped up as a stylish roguelike. You might as well throw away your snowboards, because you won’t need them when I review Fresh Tracks by Buffalo Buffalo.

Fresh Tracks takes place in the fantasy world of Norwyn, a snowy land lorded over by five Mythics. These include characters like Sogvar, who delights in the glory of the great heroes, or Fars and Dram, the masters of laughter and tears. However, when Mar, the queen of terror, seizes control of the dreams of Norwyn, it’s up to the Mythic Koda, the voice of inspiration, to convince a new champion to rescue the land and songs from their evil clutches.

As it turns out, that new champion is a ski-strapped adventurer named Skai, who finds a magical sword while traveling through the Pinewood Forest. One song at a time, Skai will need to ski over musical whyspers, dodge objects and fight off an army of monsters, all in an effort to defeat Mar and the other Mythics.

From a gameplay perspective, this is a lot easier than actually learning how to ski. A lot of the actions involve jumping over objects, crouching through tunnels and leaning left or right when skiing past rocks and other diagonal obstacles. You do all this while jumping from one ski line to the next, always looking for a clear path or items you’ll need to pick up. Normally, there are two or three paths to jump between, but it can sometimes be as few as one or as many as six. It all depends on how complicated the level (and song) is.

It's important to keep in mind that this Fresh Tracks is set up like a typical roguelike, where each run will be a little different. This isn’t the kind of game where you’ll speed through the story in the very first attempt, because the game expects you to die multiple times, constantly learning from each restart. The good news is that there are a lot of branching paths that will allow you to choose the songs and difficulty you want to experience, allowing the player to pick up helpful perks and special items they can unleash at any time.

The nice thing about the game is that you don’t really lose that much when you fail, something that softens the blow of having to start over. Outside of the perks and items you’ve picked up along the way, the only thing you really drop are the whyspers, which end up being used as currency you can spend right before confronting each Mythic. Shortcuts will also open up as you defeat these bosses, allowing you to bypass lengthy sections that you’ve already completed.

Even though I’m not always a huge fan of this structure, I liked the way it was implemented here. I looked forward to every restart, because I wanted to hear the new songs and see the different backdrops. I like how each stage takes us to a different snowy setting, like the caverns or a city or on a freezing river. The game isn’t afraid to go weird with some of the stages, like sending us into a setting where there are giant boxes floating everywhere. There’s an interesting mix of organic and manufactured obstacles, helping to expand on the lore we’re reminded of every time we start a new session.

It helps that these levels are genuinely exciting, especially when you get into their medium and hard variations. You’re going to need to have quick fingers to go from dodging objects to slashing the many fantasy foes. You’ll control the sword with the right analog stick, giving you full control over the direction you want to attack. You’ll find that some enemies and obstacles will require you to slash them in a specific direction, while others will leave it to your discretion. This ends up being a lot of fun, especially when you are able to choose from different types of swords.

Back on the level designs, I was impressed by how well they matched the songs. Although you’re picking up items that are effectively notes, it never feels as directly linked to the music as a game like Rock Band. Instead, many of the connections are a little more subtle, like descending down steps in order to mimic a bass line. That said, there are a number of times where everything really comes together to create a cool audio/visual/gameplay moment, like when cutting down a bunch of trees represents a cool drum solo in the middle of a blizzard.

And then there’s the music, which is, across the board, superb. This is often the weakest link when it comes to rhythm games made by smaller studios, as licensing music can be expensive and creating your own catchy tunes is extremely tough. However, Buffalo Buffalo absolutely nail it, with a wide assortment of earworms that cover pretty much every genre you could hope for (except for maybe mumble rap). As cool as the levels are, its these songs that are the real star. This is one of the few recent games where I immediately needed to track down the soundtrack. They really do a good job of mimicking popular pop, rock and metal songs, and the whole track list is filled with bangers.

The one downside is that instead of packing the soundtrack with more songs, the developer uses each song to create easy, medium and hard versions of the levels. This definitely adds more content to the game, and makes each playthrough more interesting, but there comes a point where you’ve heard all of the songs multiple times, simply because the track list isn’t as extensive as other rhythm games. Thankfully, this isn’t too bad, as you aren’t really playing that many songs in each playthrough, but there are definitely times when I wished that they had a bigger production budget, if only to get a few more songs in there.

Another issue I ran into was the currency. Not the whyspers, which can be used to buy upgrades and items mid-game, but rather the Ekkos, which was a form of currency that would remain with you, no matter how many times you die. These Ekkos are used to buy new skis and swords, as well as the songs, allowing you to practice the harder stages before taking them on in the game. That may sound like a lot, but you’ll quickly discover that there isn’t all that much to spend your Ekkos on. Given how many times you’ll likely restart this game, it would have been nice to have more customization or upgrades. You’ll quickly amass more Ekkos than you’ll know what to do with, which makes this feel like a missed opportunity.

While I don’t have a problem with the game’s difficulty, I will admit that it’s definitely on the challenging side. I came into Fresh Tracks a big cocky, having played so many rhythm games in my life. Yet this game humbled me. Not at first, but once those boss fights started showing up, I was unprepared. And the closer you get to tracking down Mar, the faster your fingers will need to be. Even on the easiest setting, some of those later stages will put up a good fight. This is a game that doesn’t shy away from being challenging, which I can appreciate, despite it likely putting off some players.

My final note is about the gameplay, which is easy to learn and fun to master. I like how moving, jumping and crouching are all done through the D-pad, and it’s so much fun swinging the sword in every direction. That said, I wish the combat side of things was a little more fleshed out. What this game needs is a defensive move, like a shield. I really like how you can use different swords, which have different special moves, but it would have been cool to cast spells or have more control over the combat, especially as that becomes more of a focus in the final stages.

Nitpicking aside, none of these problems are going to keep me from having a good time on the slopes. Between the incredible soundtrack, the exciting level designs and a cool story with great voice acting, there’s a lot to love about Fresh Tracks. It’s the kind of game I’m going to want to come back to for the music and the fun, which not typical of the games I review. While there is definitely room for improvement, this is a strong debut for not only this franchise, but also first-time developer Buffalo Buffalo.