Winter Heat

"Heat up the winter landscape"

Winter Heat is an enormously entertaining multiplayer game on the SEGA Saturn. Fans of Olympic-type sport games will not be disappointed with this one.

Gameplay: The control system for Winter Heat is very simple. It typically consists of rapid finger tapping of one button. But this is not a bad thing, nor does the game lose any amount of fun because of the simplistic controls. In fact I think that the easy control system is one of the game's strong points. It's very easy to learn (of course) and anyone can play the various events with ease.

Story: As is the case in most sport games, there isn't much of a story. You're just trying to win the various events and come in first place overall by the end of the competition.

Audio/Video: The music to Winter Heat is really not that good. Thankfully, when playing most of the events, there isn't any music, just SFX. And the SFX are pretty good. But the characters are what makes Winter Heat truly shine. While some of the backgrounds could be better detailed and some of the effects, such as falling snow, look comical, the characters look amazing. Simply put, I was blown away by the great polygonal characters. The best I have ever seen on the Saturn. Too bad all the visuals in the game couldn't look as crisp and clean as the characters.

Replayability: Oh yea, Winter Heat has tons of replayability. With 11 events to choose from (Cross-Country Skiing, Speed Skiing, Downhill Skiing, Aerial Skiing, Ski Jumping, Long and Short versions of Speed Skating, Skeleton, Slalom, Bobsled and Snowboarding) Winter Heat provides an ample amount of choices. Also, with support for up to four players, Winter Heat can provide some serious competition between friends.

The bottom line is that Winter Heat on the SEGA Saturn is a fantastic multiplayer game. If you even remotely enjoy sport games, I highly suggest this game. It will not disappoint.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/00, Updated 06/18/00