At first, I thought very little of this game. You go in, you either know snowboarding gameplay or you don't, you get smoked getting used to the way the game plays, you actually learn it, you figure out pretty much the whole racing mode just requires the Z-button and the control stick outside of the very few times you need to jump (getting killed by a 1-inch curb on Mountain Village was very funny), it works. However, the game has a VERY good use of rumble - which is a weird compliment to give in modern times, but the feel of going over snow, ice, grass, or brick is all very distinct and gives each texture a different feel in how you handle over it, in spite of keeping the same speed over each. As not-a-snowboarding-guy, this felt neat and fun and incredibly technically impressive for '98, trying to match the board to each surface in order to get a clean run to shave tenths of seconds off individual sections. Would make for an incredibly fun arcade experience, I thought.
Then the game hits you with the Ice Man.
The Ice Man does not care if you have fun or not. The Ice Man wants to work your body as hard as possible as he challenges you to a death course that you've never seen before, where you START and the first drop is so weirdly conveyed you are almost guaranteed to faceplant right into the snow. As he shreds down the ICE VALLEY HALFPIPE while you flounder about with the rockiest of terrains, wondering if he even makes mistakes (he does). Trying to figure out which one of these paths might be the fastest as you wipe to his cold, unfeeling non-gaze. And then realize oh, I don't get to challenge the Ice Man again unless I beat all five of the prior heats. And then you go and actually learn Deadly Fall and figure out some good angles and compare your best times and hope it's solid enough to overcome the Ice Man and then I start looking up strategies and realize holy crap I actually really care about 1080 Snowboarding.
There is NOT a lot of meat on the bone. Tricks are stiff and executed by either Mortal Kombat inputs or an SPD if you wanna do the big spinny, and are actively useless on the main racing mode. The actual number of modes feels very limiting, there's a lack of sauce in 1080. Instead, the game devotes all of its focus into making the process of letting the board hit the snow feel like you're properly fighting against a mountain to let it go. And it feels pretty damn good! Definitely a bit of a learning curve, but I was surprised coming off of this game really appreciating it as a great time trial machine! Thank you Ice Man, I hate you, but you made me care!
Then the game hits you with the Ice Man.
The Ice Man does not care if you have fun or not. The Ice Man wants to work your body as hard as possible as he challenges you to a death course that you've never seen before, where you START and the first drop is so weirdly conveyed you are almost guaranteed to faceplant right into the snow. As he shreds down the ICE VALLEY HALFPIPE while you flounder about with the rockiest of terrains, wondering if he even makes mistakes (he does). Trying to figure out which one of these paths might be the fastest as you wipe to his cold, unfeeling non-gaze. And then realize oh, I don't get to challenge the Ice Man again unless I beat all five of the prior heats. And then you go and actually learn Deadly Fall and figure out some good angles and compare your best times and hope it's solid enough to overcome the Ice Man and then I start looking up strategies and realize holy crap I actually really care about 1080 Snowboarding.
There is NOT a lot of meat on the bone. Tricks are stiff and executed by either Mortal Kombat inputs or an SPD if you wanna do the big spinny, and are actively useless on the main racing mode. The actual number of modes feels very limiting, there's a lack of sauce in 1080. Instead, the game devotes all of its focus into making the process of letting the board hit the snow feel like you're properly fighting against a mountain to let it go. And it feels pretty damn good! Definitely a bit of a learning curve, but I was surprised coming off of this game really appreciating it as a great time trial machine! Thank you Ice Man, I hate you, but you made me care!