| 1080 Snowboarding | Page 1/2 |
| Reviewer: Juho Mankila | |
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When it was winter I was enthusiastic about anything that had something to do with snow, whether it was downhill skiing or snowboarding. Unfortunately I never really got into snowboarding and stayed with my pair of Kästles, and skied all winter with my season-ticket, muahahaa. I never experienced the intriguing half-pipe action, the intense speed in the snowboarding-street, strapped into a piece of carbon fibre... and on top of that, snowboarding is kewlcool. I Guess I just have to settle with 1080, huooh, but, embrace yourself, because 1080 brings you the most realistic snowboarding action ever.
The sense of speed is the best I've yet seen on N64 or Playstation, when you go down with eye-wetting speeds or making a huge jump your clothes start to flutter, wow, like you'd be there for real. All the way the sounds are great and the "cool" comments from the boarders when you select them are downright, ehmm, cool. I'm not a snowboarder, so I'm not the best to judge the music, but I can tell you that it is club-music at it's weirdest. I didn't really like the tunes but they're not awful enough that you would like to turn them off (except in the intro maybe, arghs).
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| Boarders
from Japan ? Yes. Boarders from Finland ? Nope. |
You can ride with five dudes and one girly...erm, yes.. and 8 boards. No, you can't find top boarders like Jussi Oksanen, Aleksi Litovaara, Jani Hurme or Terje Haakonsen. Licensed professional boarders are forgotten, and replaced with an interesting cast of unofficial riders (from UK, Japan, USA and Canada). As I said before, their comments are realistic, and everyone has got different sound effect for when they slam against the wall or fall after a jump, and they're actually good. Different boarders have some different tricks instead of others, but it isn't that remarkable. The boards differ from each other, for example the shorter the board is, the more agile is it. There're more differences like acceleration, responsibility, and so on, better to take short board if you're going to Half pipe, oh and by the way, they are official Lamar-boards. Some might like the fact that the clothes worn by the competitors, are designed by Tommy Hilfiger, a famous designer. I sure would like the one worn by Ricky Winterborn, it is that good.
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| The comparison is for you to make. The upper one is 1080, and lower is Supreme Snowboarding. |
1080 takes you to a ride never before seen, on both PS and N64. Think about it, a Playstation dev-team tries three times without getting even near 1080, the first snowboarding game by Nintendo. Realistic physics, not too easy tricks and the real feeling of going down with only the aid of gravity make 1080 simply the best sports game on N64. It actually was the Sports Game of the Year at E3 in 1999. Only game that seems to really challenge 1080, is a PC and Dreamcast-title, Supreme Snowboarding. They look remarkably the same, which can also be a good thing. I'm looking forward to this supreme Snowboarding game, under development by a finnish gamehouse, Housemarque. For N64, there is the 1080 2 coming up, probably in 1999 in the States at least.
| Juho Mankila | |