Line Rider Freestyle Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 4th August 2009

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We go freestyle with Line Rider.

Line Rider Freestyle Details:

	Puzzle
	PC/Nintendo Wii/Nintendo DS
	Genius
	Deep Silver

Out Now

Line Rider has been a popular internet game for sometime now so it comes as no real surprise that it has made its way on to Nintendo's popular handheld. However, as we've seen many times ports don't always prove to be successful and Line Rider: Freestyle is very much, one such case!

Line Rider like most puzzle games has a fairly simple idea behind it. Simply guide your sled bound character from point A to point B without him falling off. Of course there are obstacles for you to overcome but it really is that simple.

Line Rider: Freestyle’s main mode requires you to guide your character safely across several incomplete tracks. By drawing lines over gaps or making ramps to clear large holes and so on. With this simplicity you may think that Line Rider would make the transition to the Nintendo DS well! But ultimately it doesn’t mainly due to the fact the game demands a very high level of accuracy when drawing your lines, something which is quite difficult when using the thick ended stylus and small DS screen. The game is extremely unforgiving requiring you to draw lines that meet the existing line perfectly, whilst any little bump will often result in our hero being propelled through the air, wrecking his sled and you failing your task.

Whilst some will argue this unforgiving nature of the game makes it all the more challenging, it simply makes Line Rider: Freestyle an extremely frustrating playing experience often requiring you to redraw the same line over and over until your little character lands safely or travels a millimetre or so more then he did previously. This frustration level severely eats away at any longevity the game has and it becomes all too easy to power-off your DS and forget about this frustrating puzzle game.

However despite the flaws with Line Riders gameplay mechanics the game does still have some good points. These come in the games other modes, Freestyle and Puzzle. These two modes are very similar to each other allowing you to create content to share with friends. Freestyle mode allows you to create tracks to test out whilst Puzzle mode allows you to create tracks to share with your friends and challenge them to solve by safely guiding the games sled bound hero through the track.

Presentation in the game is pretty basic so don’t expect much, menu’s are easy to navigate and smooth, whilst in game visuals are largely forgettable. As you can imagine it’s simply a series of lines with a little man on a sled. And some background mountain peaks. Just like the games visuals Line Rider’s sound is also somewhat limited and on the whole largely forgettable, but what little there is serves its purpose.

So the popular Internet game has failed to make a smooth transition to Nintendo’s handheld, providing a frustrating experience with the only real highlight being its level creation mode. As puzzle games go the biggest challenge from Line Rider Freestyle comes from trying to stick with it for any prolonged length of time.