1080 Avalanche

"Don't Listen to "Professional" Review"

As my title states, don't listen to him. To me, it sounds like he had a bias BEFORE he turned on the game.

1080 Avalanche is one of the better Game Cube Snowboarding games available. It offers up some pretty kick ass graphics, GOOD controls, and an interesting game style. The perfected sequel to it's predecessor, 1080 Snowboarding, for the N64.

First off, the graphics. Nintendo really suprised me with the great quality this game has as far as graphics goes. The characters are pretty realistic and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. The snow, is also, extremely well done. When playing Mutiplayer, your snow tracks are in the snow, as well as the other players (connected with LAN or with controlers) and the computer players. Another thing that suprised me was that when it is snowing/raining, the drops of rain/snow will actually fall on the screen and melt, leaving a neat little water effect on the screen that dosen't get in the way of playing, but enhances the realism.

The Sense of Speed in 1080 is amazingly good. Better than I thought it would be. The faster you go, the faster the falling snow and rain flys past the screen, as well as the powder you kick up as you rocket down the slopes.

There are 4 game styles to choose from. Challenge Mode, Multiplayer, Trick Attack, and Time Trial. Challenge Mode is You V.S. the computer in a downhill competetion to see who can get to the end of the level in one piece. Multiplayer is exactly as it sounds. Multiplayer. You and up to 3 other players on 1 GC, or several others connected with LAN cables, go head to head in a Race down the mountain course of your choice. Tick Attack is just you alone with your rider trying to rack up as many points doing various tricks and spins to get a high score, one of the better modes in 1080. Finally, Time Trial, is you alone going down the course of your choice trying to beat your latest time or your own ghost. During Time Trial, you can also go into other "areas" in the course to collect pieces of a coin. When you collect enough coins, you unlock boards and other slopes to tear up. Courses range from under 1 minute to over 2 mins in snowy fun.

There are a total of (from what I can remember as of right now) 5 charecters to choose from in the beginning. 3 guys and 2 gals. Each rider has different stats and attributes that include speed, turning, acceleration, jumping, and others. The rider you choose, along with the board you choose, can vary the turn out of the course. Will you smoke your opponent with a speedy rider, or will you finish last, but gain some huge air and land a bunch of kick ass tricks and spins?

The controls to the game are (unlike what some "professionals" have said) very good and stay true to the old style 1080 for the N64. Each rider and board _feels_ different from the other and depending on what type of terrain you are riding on (varries from packed snow, powder, ice, iced over streets, staircases, and railings) makes for a differnt feel of turning and speed. If your any good at skateboarding games (or video games in genneral :P) you'll be able to master the controllers in minutes.

To steer, use the control stick. To jump, hold down the A button to charger your jump meter (takes mabey 1 second) and let go of the A button, but if you hold down the A button too long, your rider will reset him/herself and you'll have to charge all over again. Not really a bad thing, infact, I prefer it that way. When riding a snowboard or skateboard, you don't squat down to jump for a real long time in real life. To gain more speed, tuck down by holding the L button. When holding the L button though, turning will be harder as your going faster and your lower to the board. To pull off tricks in the air, hit either the B, X, or Y buttons along with a direction with the controll stick. To turn in the air (180, 360, 540, etc.) hold the R button in the air. Make sure to land correctly though, or you'll fall over and get coverd in snow (literally).

Balancing is a new interesting feature. If you land funny, your rider will start to loose balance and you'll have to correct him or her by rotaiting the control stick in the direction the screen tells you to. If you do it in time, your rider will balence out and ride off. If not, you will fall over and eat snow. When balancing, you enter a kind of "Bullet Time" effect where time slows down as you correct yourself, so you have time to steer out of the way of a tree or hole.

The Music is all licensed music (smart move Nintendo!!) and offers a selection of Rock, Punk Rock, and a kind of peppy, techno beat. During the loading time, you are able to select which music track will play during the course BEFORE you play it. A neat little feature that makes playing the game that much more fun as you can slide down the mountain listening to yur favorite track instead of one you hate.

Loading time is really not bad at all. Dosen't last for more than a few seconds normally. Don't worry though, you have time to select your music track as you have to press the start button after the slope has loaded.

Overall, 1080 Avalanche is a great game that I don't find myself shoving to the back of the closet anytime soon. It's defiently worth the 12 bucks at EB Games or Gamestop. Or if you don't have the 12 bucks, rent it for 5 or whatever. Either way, it's a great game that's fun to play and even more fun to play with friends.

The only thing that could have made this game better would be a Free Range mode that would allow you to tear it up down the mountain without having to worry about time or tick attack (Wii version mabey?). And the deletion (word?) of a certain mode that I failed to mention. It's a Slalom type mode where you have to go through gates in order to complete the level correctly. Not exactly fun, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Happy Shreading!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/06