Recall your childhood memories of wintertime. A fresh snowfall occurs overnight, and in the morning all the hills are clean pallets just waiting for you to take your sled down them. With each trip down the hill you carve out new paths in the fresh winter snow, creating routes that wind through the trees with sudden turns and exciting jumps. What if you could experience something like that at your desk? 

Allow me to introduce Line Rider.  

More art-toy then game, Line Rider is a physics-based pastime created by Slovenian college student Boštjan Čadež with no goal other than to create tracks for a little kid on a sled to ride. While in actuality the idea that a flash game can recreate the same sense of sliding down a fresh hillside of snow unlikely, I can see the inspiration behind the concept. A fresh canvas is presented before you, and with several basic drawing tools you can create either wonderfully simple or amazingly elegant tracks. Once completed, press play and watch the rider slide through the gauntlet you created. 

The basic free flash version can be played directly from the website, requiring nothing more than opening the page. However, you are limited to the number of drawing tools available for track creation. Relax though; you can still create some pretty crazy courses with what is available, which includes standard tracks, zip lines, and a regular drawing tool to add your own personal aesthetic touches. Once you’ve finished with your masterpiece, you can save your tracks and even share them with other creators via the website.  

There is also a version that uses Microsoft’s Silverlight web browser plug-in, but it doesn’t add much more than the ability to send your creations to others. If you find yourself hopelessly addicted to the game and overly involved in the Line Rider community, then perhaps it’s worth the installation of Silverlight.   

For those who want more options for track creation though, you’ll have to shell out a few bills for the retail version, which is available on a number of platforms, including: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, and the iPhone. Entitled Line Rider 2: Unbound, this version includes a number of new track creation tools. Trampolines, exploding tracks, trap doors, finish lines, and a host of other options allow tons of new ways to create tracks. There is even a story mode included that spans 40 courses created by TechDawg, who has created some of the most crazy and imaginative tracks with the original Line Rider.  

Otherwise, if you’ve read enough, click here to play Line Rider.

Enjoy!

~James B. LaPoint

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