Snowboard Kids

"It's not realistic? Who cares? It rocks!"

Gameplay: 10
So, you go down a hill and race to the end. But obviously there's alot more to it than that. Each character has different stats, adding stragity to the game. You can also choose different boards to affect the stats. You can buy weapons and items to help you stay ahead of the race and slow your opponents down. One of them is a defense item that helps you avoid weapons and smushing pans. And of course, my favorite: the tricks. You can pull off vertical, horizontal, and oblete spins, and add board grabs to them. You can also pull off special moves by entering direction combinations during crouch. They don't tell you what the special tricks are, so you have to find them out yourself. Doing tricks gets you money, which you can buy items and weapons with. You can also use the money you kept by the end of the race to buy you boards. There are 9 tracks in total, 3 of which have to be unlocked by winning first places (in single player of course). There are also hidden special boards that you can earn as well. There is a secret character too (a pimpy one at that). When you get to the end you fight your way into the lift and get back to the top for another lap. There's nothing wrong with the gameplay here.

Graphics: 8
The visuals are mostly cartoony - characters with long noses, smiling snowmen, cartoony sounds... some people don't like that, and that's a shame. The cartoony feel makes this game unique. Anyway, the characters look alittle blocky, and you can only see them on their snowboards (except for the ending). But that's ok. The tricks loo, nice, with stars following your board to add to the effect. The special tricks look awsome, with BLUE stars around you as you twist and twirl through the air. I wish they didn't take them away in SBK2. ;_; The boards look cool, and you can paint them in the board shop. The special boards look great too. As for the tracks...they're unrealistic (snowboarding on grass? sand??), but it also adds to the variety. There is even a japanese track called Ninja Land.

Sound: 10
The sound is nice. Each character has his/her own voice. They introduce their names when you pick them. They also give off things like ''Weeeee!'' and ''Yeah!'' when they do a trick. They also say things like ''Thank you!'' and ''All right!'' when you land a trick that was worth 150 or over. They also give grunts or sighs if they get shot at by a weapon, or smushed by an obsticale, and they say ''ow'' when they hit a wall. There is also a ''narrirator'' that gives off comments. Like he says ''good'' for board grabs and ''GREAT!'' for special moves. As for the music, it rocks. It's fast paced and well composed.

Challenge: 8
Your mission is to get 1st place in all the tracks and unlock everything. But that doesn't come so easy. The computer players get harder and harder as the tracks go by, and you will have to buy boards to keep up with them. Also you will eventually have to get 2,000 points in the trick challenge to get the feather board, which you will have to practice at in order to get it. You will also have to get money from the races because the boards arn't exactly cheap. And the mysterious racer in Ninja Land is hard to get by.

Total: 9
This game is fun, it has lasted me for over 3 years now. There are unique characters, unique tracks, and unique (and some unusual) boards. This game sticks out of the snowboarding video games.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/03, Updated 04/16/03