1080: Avalanche

Since then, though, a lot has changed. Nowadays, SSX is the reigning snowboarding king, not 1080, and the latest installment in Nintendo's franchise, 1080: Avalanche , does little to change that. The NST-developed sequel is a fun snowboarding game with an impressive sense of speed and entertaining avalanche elements, but it's also relatively shallow, not to mention decidedly less intuitive and less refined than efforts from the competition.

The Facts

• Official sequel to the hit N64 racer 1080: Snowboarding
• Play as five different snowboarders including Ricky Winterborn and Rob Haywood
• Unlock new boards including a penguin
• Bust out a variety of different grabs, spins and flips for style and points
• In Match Race, shred down 15 standard tracks on novice, hard and expert modes. Then unlock Extreme Challenge and race seven additional courses
• Other modes include Gate Challenge, Trick Attack and Time Trial
• Features four-player split-screen multiplayer mode
• Four-player LAN
• Progressive scan support
• Dolby Pro Logic II support
• Requires three memory blocks for saves

Gameplay
Avalanche doesn't aspire to be anything but the sequel to the original 1080 Snowboarding, a truth which becomes very clear from the moment you boot the title up. The interface, well designed but simple, is modeled around a 3D cabin and it's in this fitting locale that you can select from the different mode types and boarders and then begin the race. The menu system is perhaps less impressive than the one in the Nintendo 64 game, especially considering that it's little changed and five years more advanced -- the cabin is barren, seeming to be almost empty and lacks in both graphic geometry and texture clarity -- but it gets the job done.

This 1080 sequel is very much modeled after the winning formula that powered the original game. It's a snowboarder with a greater emphasis on speed -- on flat out racing -- than on tricks and air time and it's here that the game is a success. The developer has done a fine job of making Avalanche look and feel fast and as a result you will find yourself sucked into many of its race scenarios.

However, the real show stealer are the destructive avalanches in the game, which are extremely well done, occasionally huge and frantic, and extraordinarily entertaining. You'll outrace snow waves, dodge falling trees and rolling boulders, jump objects and take turns, and you'll do it all with the screen shaking and with a dangerous force chasing right behind. Indeed, if there were more avalanches in the game, we might have rated it higher because it's these elements that are most enjoyable. Actually, enjoyable is not the word. Insane, rather, is more descriptive. We highly recommend downloading this video to get an idea of what we mean. The problem, though, is that standard races -- still fun, but not nearly as compelling -- take up the majority of the game, and the full-blown avalanche levels, only a couple, seem more like bonuses.

There is a healthy selection of four gameplay modes, all of them entertaining for different reasons. The main draw is Match Race, which features 15 standard tracks spread across novice, hard and expert modes. This -- the meat and potatoes of the game -- is fun while it lasts, but it doesn't last long. Once you beat one circuit, another is unlocked. If you're good enough -- which isn't difficult -- you'll eventually (see: within the hour) unlock Extreme Challenge, which includes a final mishmash of seven courses from the other circuits. You'll have fun with these, too, but because the tracks are so short -- many less than a minute -- the races are over soon after they've begun, which is a big disappointment, especially if you've just come from playing the gargantuan sized tracks in SSX 3.

Avalanche also features Time Trial, Trick Attack and Gate Challenge modes and these certainly extend replay value some. We had initially expected these offerings to be rather meaningless -- just afterthoughts -- but this couldn't be further from the truth. Each mode is fun and challenging and all of them offer unlockables like new snowboards, which can then be raced in any mode. We found ourselves very drawn into both the Time Trial and Gate Challenge modes in particular as they both revolve around speed, an element which Avalanche does very well. Trick Attack will satisfy, too, but it fails in comparison to the more robust system in SSX.

Finally, the multiplayer modes are welcomed. The four-player split-screen offering plays just as you would hope. You can race from a small selection of tracks which you have unlocked in the Match Race mode and the split-screen action -- yes, even in four-player mode -- runs very well. No major framerate drops. No huge, glaring loss in detail. It just works. And that makes us very happy. On top of this, the title features a four-player LAN mode. Yeah -- only four players, a disappointment given that you can go against just as many people in split-screen action. Still, if you're one of the lucky who can afford to setup at least two GameCubes, two copies of 1080, two televisions and a hub connection, you're in for a treat.

Graphics
We took a look at the original 1080 to refresh our memories before we delved into Avalanche and there are a lot of similarities here. The deep snow effects, the wavering clothing on riders, and the style and presentation of the occasionally branching courses are all recognizable between the two. But NST's game is expectedly prettier, for the most part. Levels are just as varied. The title boasts locales engulfed in snowstorms, set to the backdrop of factories, during day and night, and with various weather effects like rain and sleet. The weather effects in place are gorgeous -- some of the best we've seen. There is more going in within each level. Objects animate in the background, there is wildlife like deer, people on skis and snowmobiles, and more, and all of these extras add a layer of realism to the environments.

The riders themselves aren't overly impressive. They are constructed using a moderate degree of polygons and as such lack roundness and detail. Meanwhile, textures -- acceptable -- aren't as crisp or defined as they could be. Boarders animate fluidly enough, but there's a certain stiffness to them that wasn't identifiable in the original game. We looked at the two closely to confirm. The boarders don't duck and angle as realistically as they did in the previous title -- a style we preferred. Still, the animation is better than most of what's out there in the snowboarding genre with the notable exception of EA's game, which is far superior in this regard.