It’s always a bit weird when you review games people can play for free, since if nothing else it obviously doesn’t cost you anything to simply try them out yourself. That said, in my mind people’s time can sometimes be more valuable than their money, so if giving them a heads up on the state of things can potentially save them even a half hour it could be worthwhile.

For the most part logging into it the structure of things isn’t a surprise. Sure, there’s the actual choice to go play the game against other people, but the majority of the home screen is dedicated to trying to suck you into buying something. Whether it’s the season pass, the shop, or your personalization screen where you won’t have much to change short of buying something or grinding a ton, it may be free, but the hooks are everywhere hoping to get you to nibble. 

Moving onto the gameplay, I suppose the best thing to say is that it’s fine. Not terrible, not amazing, just generally fine. You’ll race against other penguins sliding down a track that can be set in a number of environments and with a variety of surfaces. In terms of technique there isn’t a whole lot outside of a jump and an attack button. Hitting things is generally always a good thing, as it can pop you up in the air, allowing you to sometimes get to quicker track areas, but if you miss you’ll get slightly stunned for a few seconds so you’ll want to try to be accurate. There are other aspects like grabbing cans to give yourself a temporary boost once you get 10, and keeping an eye out for opportunities to grab a ball that will help you glide, but in general within about 2 races you’ll be familiar with most of what there is to know.

That’s both the strength and the weakness of the experience. It’s great that it’s approachable and fun in a light sort of way, but it’s also somewhat unremarkable and similar to other free-to-play family-friendly games out there. Also consistent with most of its free peers the performance can be choppy at times, and not always ideal for having great races, but I’d imagine that will depend on your local connection and other factors that may be out of your control and could easily vary. The good news is that it’s at least free, so if this sounds like it could be fun, give it a try and see how well it performs and plays for you.