Sled Storm

This is a game I bought three and a half years ago for $2 used. I had never heard of it, but figured it looked immensely corny and would make for a great one-or-two-night gimmick game back in the dorm rooms. It proved to be a hit. Several people came over that night and tried their hand at this Hydro Thunder meets SSX snowmobile racing game. I think we even unlocked a few sleds and tracks. Now, in some cases, "beating" a game is in the eye of the gamer. I figured I could safely call this one beaten once I had won a race on every track. But I just did not have the time or the patience to do so; we've all seen "rubber band" AI in racing games, but this one takes it to a whole new level. Fall a hundred times, and you'll still have a shot to win the race with a flawless final twenty seconds or so. On the flip side, race perfectly, and you could easily find yourself in second when all is said and done. Absurd and stupid - why do the ten minute race if everything just comes down to the final thirty seconds anyway? I beat two of the six tracks (that's one third beaten!) in thirty minutes and then started getting impatient. So I'll make a confession; I found a cheat online that would unlock all racers and sleds. Surely, with the top sled in the game (a "hover-sled") I'd be unstoppable, right? Wrong. It turns out that when using the ultimate sled - the one that's maxed out in every statistical category - I was crashing and falling off the courses more than ever. I blame it on the ridiculous speed of the sled. I went airborne off of moguls constantly and this often resulted in me flying into a wall or off of a cliff. Again, stupid - why have a "best sled in the game" if it's too good to be effective? Aggravated and annoyed, I was about to quit, but then I realized that the code I had used to unlock all sleds and characters had also unlocked every level. Now, here's where we enter a gray area. Technically, the cheat code itself had allowed me not only to beat the game but to complete it. What, then, was to prevent me from considering it done? (Aside from the fact that, you know, I hadn't really done much to earn it, that is.) Since there were only three more tracks I had not seen, I decided just to race each one once. At least by going through them, win or lose, I'd have seen everything Sled Storm had to offer me. And it wasn't much. So, yeah, whatever - I'm done with this two-dollar no-name game. And before you cast stones at my pathetic attempt to beat it the "right" way, ask yourself if you have never used a guide, walkthrough, or code to make a game just a little bit less of a hassle on you. I thought so. We all have our vices, people, and cheat-coding my way through the final 67% of Sled Storm just isn't ever going to be something I regret doing.