Download Snowball Run Free for Windows

Pink elephants float serenely over an ice cream landscape full of fish, peppermint sticks, and one very anxious penguin. Such is the surreal world of Snowball Run, a cute and challenging kids’ game with fairly impressive 3D graphics.

You guide a penguin on top of a rolling snowball to the finish line of a suspended maze within an allotted time. All the while, you’ll be collecting fish, avoiding obstacles, and trying not to fall off the course. Arrow keys or a controller’s directional pad make the penguin roll the snowball forward, left, and right. Pressing down applies the brakes, but does not move the snowball in reverse, an important fact that may leave a few new players spinning in circles.

The unregistered shareware version contains 20 beginner levels that will be fine for older tykes, but very challenging for wee ones. The scoring is skewed toward finish times, so fish-collecting falls by the wayside. However, the game installs easily, and the fun starts instantly, making Snowball Run definitely worth a try.