The kids are arguing about their snowboarding skills. The debate escalates to the point where they decide to hold a snowboarding tournament to determine who is the best. One character, Shinobin, has no involvement whatsoever until he is unlocked by the player. In addition to the usual gameplay of a snowboarding game, Snowboard Kids adds "Shots" (special weapons used to attack players) and items which can help the player, hinder other players, or both. The game has nine main courses. Although some of the courses are snowy mountains, many are courses that would be unorthodox for snowboarding in the real world. Such courses include an amusement park, a desert, a vast valley, a dark highway, and a Japanese village during the cherry blossom festival. There were several game mechanics that were unique to Snowboard Kids from other snowboard games and racing games at the time. One was the addition of the second item slot, allowing each player to carry a shooting item and support item (such as a rock, or invisibility) at the same time. Also, players needed to pay 100 gold in order to grab an item during the race, which could be obtained either through performing tricks or collecting coins scattered across the course. All courses also required players to race down the hill for multiple laps. Once a player had reached the bottom of the hill, he or she would need to pass through the lift gate to be transported back to the top of the hill, and could not be attacked by other players in this transition.
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nostalgia definitely influences me to overrate this one. charming visuals and outstanding OST, but it's an extremely flawed experience. this game should be used in game dev seminars when discussing enemy AI, because this is emblematic of what not to do. the rubberbanding is legitimately broken such that any lead the player gets will be minimized nonsensically (nancy and jam, despite being the slowest characters in the roster, will still zoom past you without any boosts). meanwhile, if the AI is in first place for too long, they'll amass a lead that is just impossible to overcome, made doubly worse when racing against shinobin, who seems to literally always have an invisibility item ready. playing quicksand valley through ninja land is fucking harrowing and i had several (i mean several) races end with me within pissing distance of the finish line only to get pan'd, frozen, etc. and lose the race. this game's AI is demonic and torpedoes a lot of the good will and fun that was built up in the process.
it's a testament to both nostalgia and aesthetics that i can still say i enjoy this game. i definitely overrated it a bit coming into this and had to knock off a star, but it's an endearing game in spite of its flaws. i remember SBK2 fixing a lot of the issues this game had as well as just generally being a much sharper presented game. i'm looking forward to replaying it in the near future.
it's a testament to both nostalgia and aesthetics that i can still say i enjoy this game. i definitely overrated it a bit coming into this and had to knock off a star, but it's an endearing game in spite of its flaws. i remember SBK2 fixing a lot of the issues this game had as well as just generally being a much sharper presented game. i'm looking forward to replaying it in the near future.
In the tutorial, Snowboard Kids makes it clear that this is a racing game without a brake button – it also lacks an acceleration button. Gravity does all the work, leaving you to focus on turning, items and tricks. It has a charming visual style and nice slopes to snowboard down.
The turning mechanics are quite unique to Snowboard Kids, as tilting backwards allows for sharper turns. If you hold A to prepare for a jump, you will be unable to turn until you’ve finished jumping – you can also perform tricks to earn coins.
These coins (along with those on the tracks) are used to collect weapons and items, and you have one slot for each. I quite like this mechanic, although I found them to be quite unbalanced – some weapons, such as the parachute, sends people flying into the air and keeps them there for a bit too long. There’s also an unavoidable pan item that squashes all of your opponents.
This seems to create a situation where one player will often end up in front, with the other three pelting each other, unable to catch up with the leader. It’s a shame as I do like the game’s mechanics, as well as the levels.
Instead of lots of similar looking snow tracks, Snowboard Kids mixes things up with other themes, with the cutesy style managing to not make snowboarding on desert slopes look odd. There are six tracks to start with initially, with three more to unlock.
When you reach the end of the slope, a chair lift will take you back up to the top – however, the barrier will only open if a chair is ready. If second place isn’t ready, they’ll bonk off the railing just after 1st place enters and 3rd place can sneak in while they recover. It’s a nice little mechanic.
There are a few minigames to try out as well. One has you rushing down a slope quickly using the hard-to-steer fan items, one is a target practice challenge and the last is a stunt run – although that doesn’t work very well.
Snowboard Kids is a charming game. It’s not one of the best games on the system, but it’s still worth checking out.
The turning mechanics are quite unique to Snowboard Kids, as tilting backwards allows for sharper turns. If you hold A to prepare for a jump, you will be unable to turn until you’ve finished jumping – you can also perform tricks to earn coins.
These coins (along with those on the tracks) are used to collect weapons and items, and you have one slot for each. I quite like this mechanic, although I found them to be quite unbalanced – some weapons, such as the parachute, sends people flying into the air and keeps them there for a bit too long. There’s also an unavoidable pan item that squashes all of your opponents.
This seems to create a situation where one player will often end up in front, with the other three pelting each other, unable to catch up with the leader. It’s a shame as I do like the game’s mechanics, as well as the levels.
Instead of lots of similar looking snow tracks, Snowboard Kids mixes things up with other themes, with the cutesy style managing to not make snowboarding on desert slopes look odd. There are six tracks to start with initially, with three more to unlock.
When you reach the end of the slope, a chair lift will take you back up to the top – however, the barrier will only open if a chair is ready. If second place isn’t ready, they’ll bonk off the railing just after 1st place enters and 3rd place can sneak in while they recover. It’s a nice little mechanic.
There are a few minigames to try out as well. One has you rushing down a slope quickly using the hard-to-steer fan items, one is a target practice challenge and the last is a stunt run – although that doesn’t work very well.
Snowboard Kids is a charming game. It’s not one of the best games on the system, but it’s still worth checking out.
Snowboard Kids is such a gem. There may be relatively few tracks, but the ones that are here are huge, with an escalating difficulty and amount of general craziness going on. Track 1 is as basic a snowboarding course as you can get, while some of the later tracks involve snowboarding down grass, or through deserts, or a theme park.
The AI does have rubber banding, which like a lot of games of this kind with it, mean it's only really the very end of the race that truly matters. No matter what you do before then, they'll always be able to catch back up to you, so it all depends on if you get hit by something near the end. Especially as blocking options in this game are near non-existent. There's also some more blatant cheating going on, like hitting an opponent with an item, then as soon as you pass them they're throwing an item back at you, despite the fact they should still be stunned and in recovery mode.
Actual item variety is fun. Red items are all offensive and you use them all by just throwing them forward. But their effects vary quite a lot - you can freeze your opponent in ice, or turn them into a snowman so they can't turn, or force them into the air with a parachute... of course the rubber banding kinda makes all items work the same on them, while you yourself getting hit by a slower one, like the parachute, is devastating. There's also some kind of homing ability on at least some of these items, but how it works I have no idea, because sometimes it would work from quite far away and other times I could shoot just a few feet behind them and the item makes no attempt at tracking them.
Blue items are defensive and contain some of the best and worst items. For the best we have the pan item that is essentially just an offensive item but it affects everyone regardless of where they are and crushes them. This set also contains the rock, which is basically a banana peel from Mario Kart, except can't be used to block anything. It's most likely function is to make your next lap more annoying for yourself.
The physics generally work pretty great, though I find tight turns are near impossible unless using the character and board with the highest handling, which, ok yeah it makes sense they can do it, but I feel like it shouldn't be "either use the min-max for turning, or you can't do these courses".
Good game. Love the courses. Playing against AI can feel frustrating though since it just feels like nothing you do has any real impact. Or I rather, you're not fighting to get ahead, you're fighting to not fall behind. Because I noticed in a lot of races one AI will just rocket to the front of the pack and you'll never be able to catch them no matter what. It's like their rubber banding breaks and it gets stuck in "catch up" mode. I'm not sure if this is intended, such as when you fall too far behind, or what.
The AI does have rubber banding, which like a lot of games of this kind with it, mean it's only really the very end of the race that truly matters. No matter what you do before then, they'll always be able to catch back up to you, so it all depends on if you get hit by something near the end. Especially as blocking options in this game are near non-existent. There's also some more blatant cheating going on, like hitting an opponent with an item, then as soon as you pass them they're throwing an item back at you, despite the fact they should still be stunned and in recovery mode.
Actual item variety is fun. Red items are all offensive and you use them all by just throwing them forward. But their effects vary quite a lot - you can freeze your opponent in ice, or turn them into a snowman so they can't turn, or force them into the air with a parachute... of course the rubber banding kinda makes all items work the same on them, while you yourself getting hit by a slower one, like the parachute, is devastating. There's also some kind of homing ability on at least some of these items, but how it works I have no idea, because sometimes it would work from quite far away and other times I could shoot just a few feet behind them and the item makes no attempt at tracking them.
Blue items are defensive and contain some of the best and worst items. For the best we have the pan item that is essentially just an offensive item but it affects everyone regardless of where they are and crushes them. This set also contains the rock, which is basically a banana peel from Mario Kart, except can't be used to block anything. It's most likely function is to make your next lap more annoying for yourself.
The physics generally work pretty great, though I find tight turns are near impossible unless using the character and board with the highest handling, which, ok yeah it makes sense they can do it, but I feel like it shouldn't be "either use the min-max for turning, or you can't do these courses".
Good game. Love the courses. Playing against AI can feel frustrating though since it just feels like nothing you do has any real impact. Or I rather, you're not fighting to get ahead, you're fighting to not fall behind. Because I noticed in a lot of races one AI will just rocket to the front of the pack and you'll never be able to catch them no matter what. It's like their rubber banding breaks and it gets stuck in "catch up" mode. I'm not sure if this is intended, such as when you fall too far behind, or what.
A classic arcade snowboarding game, one that is easy to pick up and play with friends or by yourself. I personally really liked this game as a kid, but I would recommend getting the sequel over this one as it out performs this one in every which way.
You're a kid. You snowboard down different courses doing sick tricks along the way.
Got it memorized?
Developed by Racdym, the studio known best today for its support work on bigger Japanese studio titles such as Ni No Kuni 2 and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Snowboard Kids is a colorful, arcade style competitive racing game in which you, as the title implies, snowboard. On paper it offers little new for the late 90s, and in execution its bright, big, bold colors, grating midi music, and cartoonish characters have allowed it to blend into the background of a 90s console race entirely.
But its execution is also incredibly brilliant. Unlike traditional racing games your analog stick does not control your character through extreme left and right movements, but by pulling into the bottom left and right corners to simulate the process of throwing your weight around to guide the snowboard. This is at first jarring, but as soon as it clicked I could feel my galaxy brain activating - this simple approach to roleplaying ends up feeling incredibly intuitive as you slide downwards, which requires you to hold no buttons. Aside from interesting turn mechanics, you also have the ability to jump off hills; mastering a clean jump with a spin trick is key to success in the back half of the game's nine races.
Controls aside, the races are incredibly well designed; the twists and turns of the 9 mountain courses are challenging, forcing you to master the distinctive turning controls and use the game's items - which are devastating no matter who's in control of them. You do get two items, one of action and one of support, at any given time as long as you have a hundred gold. There is a shop from which you can buy upgrades, but I didn't see a ton of value in its largely cosmetic slant.
Snowbow Kids Plus, the port to Playstation for the Japanese audience, would be nearly perfect with its intuitive controls and wonderfully competitive track design, except for its almost consistently poor performance; the more kids on screen, the slower and less responsive it becomes. The slowdown ebbs and flows as races continue, which can go as far as causing unnecessary frustration as you head towards the end of your slope during the third lap. Otherwise, it sits in a space where its got a nearly perfect amount of races, challenge, and innovation to make it worth your time.
Got it memorized?
Developed by Racdym, the studio known best today for its support work on bigger Japanese studio titles such as Ni No Kuni 2 and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Snowboard Kids is a colorful, arcade style competitive racing game in which you, as the title implies, snowboard. On paper it offers little new for the late 90s, and in execution its bright, big, bold colors, grating midi music, and cartoonish characters have allowed it to blend into the background of a 90s console race entirely.
But its execution is also incredibly brilliant. Unlike traditional racing games your analog stick does not control your character through extreme left and right movements, but by pulling into the bottom left and right corners to simulate the process of throwing your weight around to guide the snowboard. This is at first jarring, but as soon as it clicked I could feel my galaxy brain activating - this simple approach to roleplaying ends up feeling incredibly intuitive as you slide downwards, which requires you to hold no buttons. Aside from interesting turn mechanics, you also have the ability to jump off hills; mastering a clean jump with a spin trick is key to success in the back half of the game's nine races.
Controls aside, the races are incredibly well designed; the twists and turns of the 9 mountain courses are challenging, forcing you to master the distinctive turning controls and use the game's items - which are devastating no matter who's in control of them. You do get two items, one of action and one of support, at any given time as long as you have a hundred gold. There is a shop from which you can buy upgrades, but I didn't see a ton of value in its largely cosmetic slant.
Snowbow Kids Plus, the port to Playstation for the Japanese audience, would be nearly perfect with its intuitive controls and wonderfully competitive track design, except for its almost consistently poor performance; the more kids on screen, the slower and less responsive it becomes. The slowdown ebbs and flows as races continue, which can go as far as causing unnecessary frustration as you head towards the end of your slope during the third lap. Otherwise, it sits in a space where its got a nearly perfect amount of races, challenge, and innovation to make it worth your time.
I think I need to spend more time with this game, but right now I feel validated in having forgotten about it after my childhood. I see good things in it, but clicking with the gameplay is a hard process.