Product description
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You're taking a Tahoe 155 snowboard down a steep, bumpy incline
at night and you're about to top off an Indy Nose with a 360
Air, and you haven't even left your living room! You're playing
1080 (Ten Eighty) Snowboarding, a game so intense you'll be
brushing the snow off your goggles. With five different boarders,
eight different Lamar snowboards, more than 25 tricks, a
Half-Pipe and six different courses, this is as close as you'll
get to the real thing without hopping on the next ski lift.
.com
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One of the best snowboarding games on any platform, 1080
Snowboarding faithfully recreates the ain experience with
beautiful graphics, realistic character and environment physics,
atmospheric sound effects, and addictive gameplay. Players
compete on a variety of unique tracks ranging from a half-pipe
and long jump--both devoted to trick-happy boarders--to long
descents that offer plenty of environmental obstacles, including
jumps, deep powder, ice, and thick stands of trees. On several
tracks, simply reaching the bottom of the hill is an
accomplishment in itself.
Much of the game's appeal lies in the finely tuned player
controls. As in real life, learning the basics--turning, jumping,
carving--is a snap. Honing one's skills to smoothly land a jump,
pull off complex in- air tricks, and negotiate tight turns and
steep descents, however, is very challenging. It's this appealing
combination of skill learning and track mastering that promises
to entice players back to the slopes season after season. Extra
kudos to the designers for the beautifully realistic sound
effects--scraping along icy sections of the track is, literally,
a tooth-grinding experience. --Eric Twelker
Pros:
* One of the best snowboarding games on any platform
* Gorgeous graphics and environmental sound effects
* Realistic character and environment physics
Cons:* Game engine slows down in graphic-heavy sections
* Opening "locked" tracks requires advanced 'boarding skills,
patience, and a love for the sport
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Review
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1080 Snowboarding is one of the best snowboarding games
available on any system. It's an exhilarating-looking game with a
great combo-driven trick system and tracks that are actually fun
to race. It also requires a lot more skill than most of the
competition.
Graphically, 1080 delivers smooth, evenly scrolling downhill
tracks and half pipes. There's little, if any, polygon dropout in
the riders, the backgrounds, or the tracks. Each of the tracks is
stylistically different, too, from Crystal ain's dense fog,
thick powder, and realistic snow and ice effects - it's actually
snowing onscreen, and it looks great - to Golden Forest's clear
skies, narrow trenches, and warm ain treescapes. The most
striking visual element of the game is the undeniable sensation
of speed. 1080 looks and feels very fast. The track really blurs
by, and you feel every turn. The only visual shortcoming is in
the slowdown that occurs when you race through on-track trees,
which is a great effect and a hair-raising test of skill, but
causes a noticeable lag.
Control is thoroughly involving. The crouch move alone - which
makes for supertight turns - makes this fun to play. The physics
model is very solid throughout. 1080 Snowboarding features five
different riders and eight different boards. The inclusion of a
balance statistic in the riders' profiles makes for many
different styles of play, and control varies throughout,
depending on the rider and board combination selected. Riders
range from cute little folks who don't move too fast but can
really cut up the track, to Dennis Rodman-looking giants
travelling at 120mph who can barely stand up. Unlike a lot of
snowboarding games, landings are not automatic, so you've really
got to earn those big jumps by learning how to finish them
without cing. This brings us to the issue of skill.
From Indy nose 540's to stalefish to mute grab 720's, all the
usual tricks are here, but this time around they require a lot
more skill in execution. Though a lot of the grabs are simple,
two-button moves, the big rotations are executed with combos.
That is, unlike a lot of snowboarding games, in which the angular
prowess of each jump is decided simply by the length of time
you've held down a button, in this game, you need to master a
fairly intricate combo to pull off the big payback 1080-degree
spins. In addition, the tracks vary in powder thickness, which
has a big impact on speed and maneuverability. Some tracks have
ice on them too, which is a much more dangerous surface - with
refreshingly realistic physics. Since the game features a damage
meter that can pull you out of a race after one too many falls,
1080 Snowboarding's varying terrain, coupled with the skill
required to land after the more grandiose moves, requires a
higher degree of finesse than most of the competition.
Unlike a lot of snowboarding games, whose half pipe modes are
their only real thrill, the 1080's downhill races and time trials
are great. The tracks are treacherous, and each is different from
the last. Moguls, giant drops, and impossible curves are littered
throughout. When time limits are imposed, it's not with
occasional banners and 45-second bonuses, but through slalom
s, each of which doles out a two-second bonus. While
initially this is frustrating, it does add tension to the trial,
and it's a much better use of slalom s than simply throwing
you out for missing some predetermined and arbitrary number.
Initially three tracks are offered, but an additional three can
be by winning races.
1080 Snowboarding is the best snowboarding game around. Control
is some of the most involving in racing - check out the impact
crouching makes on your turning. If it weren't for the slowdown
caused by the onscreen trees - why do designers always go for
that one last feature that messes things up? - the graphics would
be perfect. Innovative level design and gameplay that requires
skill and rewards you for seeing your death-defying tricks
through to completion, rather than just knowing the move, add up
to one of the best values in both sports and racing gaming.
--Josh Smith
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
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