Solipskier for iOS

Solipskier is an innovative 2D arcade skiing game with ingenious controls, stylish sound and visuals, and gameplay that's surprisingly rich given its simplicity.

Solipskier's side-scrolling interface is as streamlined as its premise: you drag your finger to draw a ski slope, and a speedy skier--moving from left to right--skis over every incline, straightaway, and jump that you create. The challenge comes in maintaining your daredevil skier's speed, building up your score (and score multiplier), and keeping your skier alive. Call-outs on the right side of the screen warn you of upcoming gates, tunnels, and hazards (all with a rapidly diminishing countdown in meters), and you hit green gates to boost your score multiplier, indicated by a rainbow contrail. You can definitely enjoy Solipskier without understanding its intricacies--the game's pace and rock-out soundtrack are viscerally satisfying, and you can learn a lot just through experimentation--but tips on the game's main menu are invaluable if you want to rack up high scores (for example, by hitting gates in mid-air, or doing tricks on big jumps by lifting your finger from the screen). Solipskier supports leaderboards through OpenFeint.

Solipskier is an exceptional game, genre-defying and thoughtfully made, and it provides enough repeat play value to justify its somewhat formidable price tag. Fortunately, Solipskier is easy to check out for free, since it's a port from a Flash game--but it's even more fun on a touch interface.