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.