Snowboard Kids Review Bundle #1
There were two dominant racing games in the earlier stages of the Nintendo 64 era, Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing, which were both released internationally during 1997. While both games enjoyed several months of dominance in their particular target market, it was ATLUS (Now known for their “demon summoning” Megami Tensei JRPG’s) and Racdym which proved to be one of their bigger competitors in 1998 with Snowboard Kids. While several of the games features had been delivered before by its “kart racing” competitors, there to this day a certain charm that lets Snowboard Kids stand out in my mind.
While you wouldn’t know any of this unless you read the manual, Snowboard Kids follows a group of five elementary school children who live in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and are pretty much addicted to snowboarding. Following a dispute between the characters, they decide to hold a competition which will see whom is the best.
Each of the games nine main courses are well designed, with the more difficult tracks in particular trying to deliver different themes from what one would regularly expect from a snowboarding game. The competition takes the group of five everywhere from the local snowboarding course to a theme park, and while challenging at times each are a thrill to race through. The character designs on the other hand look better on the box art than in-game, something which was considerably improved in its sequel. Complementing the aesthetic appeal of the courses, each is bolstered by a strong soundtrack with some memorable themes that don’t grind on the ears considering each lap can sometimes take several minutes.
The gameplay mechanics are pretty simple and should be ‘pick up and play’ for those familiar with the general control scheme of the Nintendo 64. The control stick moves your character, the R and Z buttons use different attacks, A allows the character to jump and gain momentum and the C-buttons allow the player to perform grab moves. In my opinion the controls are fairly clunky and it isn’t always easy to navigate the course unless the ideal character + board combo is chosen, however if that match is met (From experience by giving any character a freestyle board) then the controls are adequate enough while still providing ample challenge when racing.
During each race there is a plentiful supply of coins which any of the racers can grab, which can then be spent at either red or blue shops located in the course. These “item box” style shops provide players with either weapons (red) and miscellaneous items (blue), which add the additional challenge that many kart racing games have embraced in recent decades. What I liked was that none of the items were particularly useless but provided something appropriate for whatever place the character is in. If you are fourth then you are obviously going to end up with the best items such as parachutes which fling characters up into the air and the dreaded pan which flattens the other three characters on the course. On the other hand players in first position are also prone to getting strong items such as a bombs, which while practical against foes comes with an area-of-effect which can leave multiple parties, including the user, in the carnage.
Up to four players can race at one time, and despite noticeable frame-rate drops can be much more enjoyable than single player. This is in no small part due to the frustrations that can amount from up to four players fighting over whom will reach the narrow opening to the chair-life first… which is the easiest way from someone to go from the head of the pack to last place in a matter of seconds.
In addition to the “Battle Race” mode, there is also the typical Time Attack mode which grants the player an opportunity to defeat their best time on any one course. There is also a series of three “skill” side-games which test your ability to race quickly through a course, shoot accurately and perform a multitude of tricks. The three skill mode games are not ones I really found myself drawn to, however are nevertheless a good mode to sink time into after playing through the main game.
With some fantastic course designs, challenging gameplay and strong replay value, Snowboard Kids was one of the first third-party games that really stood out to me as a kid on the Nintendo 64. While it isn’t the definitive edition with Japan receiving a “Plus” edition on the PlayStation 1, there is still much to be enjoyed both by yourself and with a group of friends. A review of its sequel Snowboard Kids 2 will be up shortly.
