What games do you think of when you think of snow? Do you think of sports games like Steep, SSX Tricky, Snowboarding Kids, or Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games? Now, what if we said that you would be following a path? Then you might think of Cross-country Skiing, Dirt, Journey, or maybe even Mario Kart 64?
After saying the game involves skiing and following a path, what if I told you it involves rhythm? Well, you then might think of Rhythm Heaven Fever, Elite Beat Agents, or maybe even a Mario Party mini-game. Well, in all instances, you would be wrong. Instead, what we have for you is an upcoming Indie game from Buffalo Buffalo called Fresh Tracks.
When we were first told about Fresh Tracks, it was described to us as a Rhythm-Based Skiing rogue-lite with an adaptive soundtrack. In said email, it was stated that some of the devs had previously worked on Gears of War, Pokémon Go, and Hardspace Shipbreaker. With these three games in mind, we were not quite sure what to expect from the demo, but knew it would be action-packed.
When first jumping into Fresh Tracks, we are given an option of what difficulty we would like to play on. Feeling like I was decent at rhythm games and because of loving RockBand, Guitar Hero, and Metal: Hellsinger, I thought that I could play the game on at least medium difficulty.
At first, the game seemed fairly easy: keep to the beat, dodge obstacles, and enjoy the beautiful environment. This sense of ease was the calm before the storm.
After completing the tutorial, the demo ramped up exponentially; continuing to glide along, we had to choose between a 3-star track or a 5-star track. At first, we tried the five-star track, and almost immediately did we regretted our decision.
On the five-star track, you had to take the base skills you had learned in the demo and kick it up to 200%. You will have to learn how to dive, duck, dip, dodge, and dive all at once.
Not only will you have to combine the mechanics from the demo, but you will need to kick them up a notch. In the 5-star song, you will need to swing in a diagonal slash, tilt your head to one side, and jump over/duck under a tree.
After failing the song and losing our three health bars, we were sent back to where the demo ended and were given the choice to try the 5-star song once again or try the 3-star song.
The three-star song had a slower pace but still required you to combine the different gameplay mechanics. With all the noise surrounding the Buffalo Buffalo booth, it was hard to hear the music and keep pace with the rhythm despite using a headset.
Despite being unable to hear the music completely, we still got to see what the developer was going for: a beautiful, atmospheric rogue-lite rhythm game with hack-and-slash mechanics.
The game definitely needs the audio to be playable, and the flashing lights can be a bit too much for those with epilepsy or photo sensitivity, but it is still a fun transversal game.
Sadly, we did not make it to the boss fight, but knowing that each area had its own musically themed boss seemed like a fun potential challenge; hopefully, when the game releases or a new demo is out, we will actually get to try that boss fight.
If this kind of game sounds appealing to you, then it might be worth checking out Fresh Tracks when it launches across Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox Series X|S, and PS5
