User Rating: 6 | 1080: Avalanche GC
A few years ago, I waited with eager anticipation for 1080 Snowboarding to be released for the Nintendo 64. The team that had brought WaveRace 64 to the N’s reigning system had worked hard to bring us more of the same, but on powder. I played WaveRace 64 with friends religiously. We had that game mastered to the point where we could just about race around the buoys with our eyes closed. The mere thought of the same flavor of gaming goodness, on ice, sounded very cool. Suffice it to say, 1080 Snowboarding did not disappoint. The competition in the extreme sports/snowboarding genre didn’t even exist at the time, so 1080 claimed the number one spot on the slopes. Fast forward to a few years later. Game series such as SSX and Tony Hawk have eaten up many hours for me and my friends. Sometimes, I would wax nostalgia and pull out my 1080 Snowboarding cartridge and pop it in for a quick go down the slopes on the N64. Ah, if only they would release a sequel for the GameCube. “If they do,” I would hope, “please let it be better than WaveRace: Blue Storm.” When I learned that a sequel called 1080 Avalanche was in the works, I was pleased. Things are a lot more competitive in the gaming world now than they were a few years ago. The battle between the consoles alone has driven prices down to unbelievable lows. The number of games at our disposal is amazing. I can’t keep up with them all. So when 1080 Avalanche was released, I found myself waiting for the price to drop. I had already invested in other snowboarding games, for multiple consoles. As I waited for the price of 1080 to drop, I kept waiting. The reviews weren’t that great, and I figured I could wait a while. Finally, I found a retailer than was selling the game for just a little over $20 new and snagged a copy. I was so jazzed to play the game, at first. As I sat in my chair, flying down the slope with blur lines at the sides of the screen (cool effect), I got a great sense of speed. Then I hit my first ramp and everything started to methodically fall apart. My satisfaction with the game wavered, and here I find myself writing this review a few months later, having spent little more than a few hours with the game. Why? Well, I’ve got to be honest and say that it’s for three reasons: 1) the tricks system pales in comparison to the SSX series, 2) the music doesn’t do anything for me, and 3) there’s just not enough incentive to make me want to play more (along with this let me say how disappointed I am in the Time Trial mode. It’s about collecting gold coins, not how fast you can ski the slopes.). There are some interesting unlockable boards, but for me…that’s just not enough. There’s a constant evolution taking place with videogames, which for me must be placed in contrast to the sense of nostalgia that I get from some of the older games. For me, 1080 was best when it was on the N64, and if I have to choose which version of 1080 to play, it’s going to be 1080 Snowboarding on N64, not 1080 Avalanche on GameCube. Having said that, the king of the slope for me today is SSX 3.
