1080° Avalanche

1080 Avalanche

On the N64 1080 Snowboarding was the first decent snowboarding game around, and really till EA's SSX on the PS2 and later Amped on the Xbox, it was the only one that was truly worth playing for some time. However, SSX has now becomes part of those games EA is constantly updating ever year, and which has been improving ever since, and Amped has proved to be a great game, so this time 1080 has real competition, and Nintendo is fighting back.

SSX is, as anyone who's played it will know, is a silly, over-the-top, but most importantly fun snowboarding game, the more recent SSX games are getting wilder and featuring huge tracks to board down and insane stunts to pull off, but 1080 is different. Rather than impossible tricks and stunts, 1080 remains at heart an arcade racer of a snowboarding game, with much shorter tracks than SSX, but the tracks are more tightly designed, every aspect of them has a purpose ,and is not simply filling some huge landscape like in SSX.

The downside is, because the tracks are shorter, you expect more than there is, even though there are 4 difficulty settings on the main mission mode, each with their own track list, you will be able to blast through them quickly enough. It's thanks to the extra modes that 1080 Avalanche excels, although the main mode itself is not to be overlooked. Essentially it's a one-on-one race to the finish over a number of courses, before a finale, in which you board alone down a risky route, eventually ending up with the incredible avalanche sections. These are without a doubt the highlight of the game, and exceptionally well done. The problem is there is far too few of them, with only 1 full avalanche course and a small number of mid-stage smaller avalanches or rock slides, but they are tremendous fun, and prove to be great for the occasional go every so often.

Then aside from mission mode you also have Time Trial and Gate Challenge. Both are very good additions, although I normally hate seeing Time Trial modes because they're usually just tacked on for the sake of it. In 1080 it's oddly addictive. As well as setting new times, there are also gold coins littered around for you to hunt out, and doing so will unlock new boards and riders to choose from, including snowmen and rocket boards! Gate Challenge is also good fun, as you blast down the track with the added challenge of skiing style gates to manoeuvre through. This mode is also timed, and proves just as fun as Time Trial.

The final single player mode is Trick Attack, with 3 special courses to ride; the Stunt Park, Half Pipe and the Ski Jump ramp. The trick system in 1080 is a little unusual, and not as good as in SSX and Amped, but if you get the hang of creating combo's you'll find Trick Attack to be a worthwhile mode. However, many people find difficulty fully grasping the unusual controls, and as such this mode is often forgotten about.

And after that there is a fairly simple split screen multiplayer mode. You only have a limited number of tracks to choose from, but it is 4-player and pretty good fun, and if you can afford to set it up, there is also a LAN-mode for multiplayer.

All in all, 1080 Avalanche is a great game! Instead of focusing on the tricks, like SSX, it's more of a racer, but it feels great to play. The graphics are fairly solid. There is some slightly stiff looking animation, but fantastic weather effects. The audio is brilliant, although the licensed soundtrack is an acquired taste (featuring American rock bands Finger Eleven, Cauterize, Boysetsfire and Seether), but the Avalanche sections are truly brilliant. It's not perfect, but it's well worth its time. Some may not like the short courses and how quickly the game can be finished, but 1080 is a game you can play over and over again, and that's exactly how a game should be.