1080° Snowboarding

1080° Snowboarding

North American Nintendo 64 cover art
Developer(s) Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s) Nintendo
Director(s) Masamichi Abe
Mitsuhiro Takano
Producer(s) Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmer(s) Giles Goddard
Colin Reed
Artist(s) Yoshitaka Nishikawa
Composer(s) Kenta Nagata
Platform(s) Nintendo 64
Release date(s)

‹See Tfd›

  • JP: 28 February 1998[1]
  • NA: 31 March 1998
  • PAL: 9 October 1998
Genre(s) Racing
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

1080° Snowboarding[2] is a snowboard racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and first released in Japan on 28 February 1998. It was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2008. The player controls one of five playable snowboarders from a third-person perspective using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks over eight levels.

1080° was announced on 21 November 1997 and developed over nine months; it garnered critical acclaim and won an Interactive Achievement Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.[3][4] 1080° sold over a million units, and a second installment, 1080° Avalanche, was released for the Nintendo GameCube on 28 November 2003.

Gameplay

The player controls a snowboarder in one of six modes. 1080° has two trick modes (trick attack and contest),[5] three race modes (race, time attack, and multiplayer),[6] a training mode, and an options mode.[7] The objective of the game is either to arrive quickly at a level's finish line or to receive maximum points for trick combinations.

In 1080°'s two trick modes, trick attack and contest, players accrue points from completed tricks.[8] In contest mode, players perform tricks and snowboard past flags for points. Trick attack mode requires players to perform a series of tricks throughout a designated level. The game features 25 tricks, all of which are performed by using a combination of circular positions of the control stick, the R button, and the B button; point values are allocated based on complexity and required time.[8] The two types of tricks are grab tricks, in which the board is grabbed in a specific way, or spin tricks, in which the snowboarder spins the board a certain number of degrees.[9] The 1080° spin requires nine actions, the most of any trick in the game.[10]

A screenshot from a match race in 1080° Snowboarding

1080° has three race modes; in these modes, victory can be achieved by taking separate routes within a course and balancing the snowboarder after a jump to avoid speed loss.[11] Tricks are scored in race modes, but do not count toward victory.[11]

In match race mode, the player competes in a series of races against AI-controlled snowboarders.[12] The game times the player throughout the level and players receive a damage meter which fills if the snowboarder falls down or is knocked over. The difficulty level in match races can be set to easy, medium, or hard, adjusting the complexity and number of races. If the player fails at defeating an AI competitor, they must retire. The player is given three chances to beat the computer before the game is over.[11][13]

Players may initially choose from five snowboarding characters: two from Japan, and one each from Canada, USA, and the United Kingdom. Each snowboarder has different abilities and is suited for different levels and modes, since each has varying statistics in fields such as technique, speed, and weight.[14][15] Three additional snowboarders are unlocked by completing certain game levels and modes.[15] Eight snowboards are initially available for every character, and one additional snowboard may be unlocked later in the game. Each board also excels in different situations, since each have different strengths in categories such as balance and edge control.[15]

Development

1080°'s release was announced on 21 November 1997 at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show; the game's working title was then Vertical Edge Snowboarding.[16] Before the game's release, journalists were able to play 1080° at the January 1998 Nintendo Gamers' Summit.[17]

1080° was programmed by Englishmen Giles Goddard and Colin Reed, developed and published by Nintendo, and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto.[18]

When developing 1080°, Goddard and Reed used a technique called "skinning" to eliminate joints between the polygons composing the characters. Their programming used a combination of standard animation and inverse kinematics, creating characters whose appearance during collisions is affected by what object is hit, what direction the collision occurs in, and the speed at which the collision takes place.[19] Tommy Hilfiger outfits and Lamar snowboards appear throughout 1080° as product placement.[9] 1080°'s soundtrack of "techno and rappy beats" with "thrashy, foozed-out vocals" was composed by Kenta Nagata,[9][18] who also composed soundtracks for Mario Kart 64 and other Nintendo games.[20]

1080°'s development took place from April or May 1997 to March 1998.[19] The game was released on 28 February 1998 in Japan[1] and on 1 April 1998 in North America. Nintendo delayed the game's European release because they hoped to boost sales with a winter release;[21] 1080° was eventually released on 30 November 1998, in Europe and the PAL region.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic88/100[22]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[23]
Edge8 out of 10[24]
GamePro[25]
Game RevolutionB+[11]
GameSpot8.6 out of 10[26]
IGN8.6 out of 10[9]

1080° received "generally favorable" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[22] It won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' 1999 Console Sports Game of the Year award[4] and was called "one of the best values in both sports and racing gaming" by GameSpot.[26] 1080° has been perceived to be a leader among snowboarding titles at the time since it was "so good...that it took publishing giant Electronic Arts several years and a far more powerful console to give it solid competition" in the form of the SSX franchise.[27] Edge hailed it as the "most convincing videogame emulation of the snowboarding experience so far" with an "atmosphere of sobriety" unlike any other Nintendo game at the time.[28]

The game's graphics were of the highest quality for the Nintendo 64 at the time.[28][29] GameSpot praised general aspects of the game's graphics such as their crispness, detail, smoothness, and lack of polygon dropout.[26] They praised the game's camera use, the game's "very solid" physics model,[26] the impression of racers' speed, and the game's snow effects (sun reflected in the snow as appropriate, and fluffy snow and packed snow appeared and behaved differently).[9] Graphical faults identified by critics included occasional pop-up, misplaced shadows, and lag when racers passed through on-track trees;[9] these problems were generally identified as minor.[26]

Although writing a positive review, Edge found faults in the game's AI; they asserted 1080° suffered from "cheating" CPU opponents.[28] They criticized the AI's simplicity and ability to quickly catch up to the player near the end of a race; they also noted the AI's "limited series of predetermined routes" and the possibility of a player learning where and when an AI falls over, "offering an opportunity to pass [the computer], but conveying little satisfaction with it."[28] Edge also stated that the PAL release delay "is frankly ludicrous."[30] They believed that, due to Nintendo's slump of noteworthy releases, "any quality title is likely to top the charts with little difficulty."[30]

AllGame considered the "highly technical" control scheme of 1080° one of the game's strengths despite its initial difficulty.[23] CVG positively reviewed the control scheme, but disagreed on its difficulty, noting "the controls have been implemented so brilliantly that you're able to play perfectly well with just one hand on the stick and Z button."[29] GameSpot called the game's control "thoroughly involving" and said that "[t]he crouch move alone – which makes for supertight turns – makes this fun to play."[26] The music was also generally praised, with IGN calling it "a shining example of what can be achieved on the format"[9] and AllGame calling it "one of the best N64 soundtracks to date".[23] AllGame also praised the game's sound effects.[23]

In a retrospective review by the Official Nintendo Magazine in 2006, Steve Jarratt commented that 1080° "boasted the best videogame representation of snow," and was complemented by "swooshy" sound effects. Positive comments were also made about handling and the quality of the multiplayer.[31] In summary, Jarratt believed "this was a straight-up snowboarder, stunt-free but fast and fun."[31] The magazine also ranked it the 87th best game available on Nintendo platforms. The staff felt it was the most realistic snowboarding game.[32]

1080° sold 1,230,000 units in the United States,[33] and over 23,000 in Japan.[34] It did not, however, match the success of the developers' first game, Wave Race 64 which sold 1,950,000 units in the United States and 154,000 in Japan.[33][34] In 2001, one of 1080°'s snowboarders, Kensuke Kimachi, appeared on a trophy in the game Super Smash Bros. Melee.[35] 1080° Avalanche, a sequel to 1080°, was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003; Avalanche received a harsher critical reception, averaging 73/100 on Metacritic,[36] due to "frame rate issues and limited gameplay".[37] 1080° was re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service in Japan on 15 January 2008, Europe on 18 January 2008 and North America on 28 January 2008.[38] The music for the Golden Forest track can be heard in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Legacy

A character from the first game (but not the second), Kensuke Kimachi, cameos as a collectible trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee. The music track "Golden Forest "(1080° Snowboarding)" appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is one of the many music themes that play on the stage, Port Town Aero Dive, and returns under the title, "Golden Forest", in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U on the same stage.

References

  1. 1 2 "Official website" (in Japanese). Nintendo Co., Ltd. Retrieved 24 October 2007.
  2. ↑ 1080° Snowboarding (テン・エイティ　スノーボーディング)
  3. ↑ "1080 Snowboarding". GameRankings. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  4. 1 2 "Console Sports Game of the Year". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  5. ↑ 1080 Snowboarding Instruction Booklet. Japan: Nintendo. 1998. pp. 15–16.
  6. ↑ 1080 Snowboarding Instruction Booklet. Japan: Nintendo. 1998. pp. 12–15, 17.
  7. ↑ 1080 Snowboarding Instruction Booklet. Japan: Nintendo. 1998. pp. 4–6.
  8. 1 2 "1080° Snowboarding". Allgame. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Casamassina, Matt (2 April 1998). "1080° Snowboarding". IGN. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  10. ↑ Operation Card for 1080° Snowboarding. Nintendo Co., Ltd. 1998.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Dr_Moo. "1080 Snowboarding – N64". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  12. ↑ 1080 Snowboarding Instruction Booklet. Japan: Nintendo. 1998. p. 12.
  13. ↑ 1080 Snowboarding Instruction Booklet. Japan: Nintendo. 1998. pp. 12–13.
  14. ↑ "1080 Snowboarding (n64)". G4. 20 April 1999. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
  15. 1 2 3 "1080° Snowboarding". Prima Games. 9 December 1999. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  16. ↑ "Head for the Slopes". IGN. 21 November 1997. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
  17. ↑ "1080 Shreds the Competition". IGN. 30 January 1998. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
  18. 1 2 Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (1 April 1998). 1080° Snowboarding. Nintendo of America, Inc. Scene: staff credits.
  19. 1 2 "1080 Snowboarding Interview". IGN. 19 March 1998. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
  20. ↑ "Mario Kart 64 Tech Info". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
  21. ↑ "1080 Delayed in Europe". IGN. 26 March 1998. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
  22. 1 2 "1080° Snowboarding". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 24 June 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Sackenheim, Shawn. "1080° Snowboarding". AllGame. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  24. ↑ "1080º SNOWBOARDING". Edge. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  25. ↑ AIRHENDRIX (23 April 2004). "Review: 1080 Snowboarding". GamePro. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Smith, Josh (25 May 1998). "1080:TenEighty Snowboarding". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 17 May 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  27. ↑ Casamassina, Matt (1 December 2003). "1080: Avalanche". IGN. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "1080° Snowboarding". Edge (57). April 1998. pp. 86–88.
  29. 1 2 Constantides, Alex (15 August 2001). "1080 Snowboarding". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 26 December 2007.
  30. 1 2 "1080° Snowboarding". Edge (62). September 1998. p. 96.
  31. 1 2 Jarratt, Steve (May 2006). "What do you mean, you've never played 1080° Snowboarding". Official Nintendo Magazine. p. 19.
  32. ↑ East, Tom (17 February 2009). "Nintendo Feature: 100 Best Nintendo Games: Part One". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  33. 1 2 "US Platinum Videogame Chart". The Magic Box. Archived from the original on 21 April 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  34. 1 2 "Nintendo 64 Japanese Ranking". Japan Game Charts. Archived from the original on 3 May 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
  35. ↑ "Text List". Super Smash Bros Arena. Gamespy. Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  36. ↑ "1080° Avalanche". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  37. ↑ Kasavin, Greg (3 December 2003). "1080 Avalanche". GameSpot. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  38. ↑ "Virtual Console". Nintendo. Archived from the original on 12 January 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2008.

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