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1080: Avalanche

by Michael Cole - October 20, 2002, 7:52 am EDT
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What does a non-sports gamer who’s played more Mario is Missing than any extreme sports game think of NST’s work in progress? Check out TYP’s comments on the title.

1080: Avalanche was the first title I tried at the Cube Club. I dug up my copy of 1080 on the N64 recently just to prepare myself, and I’m glad I did—the game really does play like the original with extra stuff added in.

The game isn’t expected to come out until third quarter 2003, so its bare-bones presentation was very understandable. The demo had two one-player modes: time attack and slalom, both of which are pretty self-explanatory. There was only one versus mode, racing, which only supported two players. Each mode had one assigned level, though two of them felt very similar and could have been variations on the same thing—I didn’t really check. The general control was very tight for such an early game, and maneuvering the boarders seemed to be easy for anyone who played the N64 game briefly. Not so impressive was the trick system. Granted, I didn’t fool with it much since there was no real use for them in the demo, but the moves seemed poorly defined. A good example is the spin trick category. As a big fan of spins in the original, I usually found myself attempting some sort of safe, horizontal move on large jumps. However, the boarder more often than not would show his suicidal nature by trying to pull off some ludicrous vertical flip—just the OPPOSITE of what I wanted. Hopefully NST will work on the trick system, though I’ve heard Wave Race: Blue Storm has strange stunt controls as well, so I’m not holding my breath.

The level design stays true to the N64 original, complete with multiple paths, secret ramps, and crazy situations. Players will board through villages, complete with cars and bridges, as well as frozen rivers, twigs and wildlife! In a section of one slope, players will have to navigate around deer who are disturbed by less than courteous athletes. I’d imagine others levels in the final version will feature similar little touches.

So far the graphics look pretty good, but they’re nowhere near perfect. They could best be described as ambitious, but just not quite there yet. A discriminating eye will pick up some awkward pop-up on the side walls, where extra detail is being added. Self-shading is common, but it seems very simplistic and pixilated. Snow accumulates on characters as players wipe out, but this is limited to a few simple texture changes. Not to say the game looks bad. The polygon count is high and the framerate is smooth, while the snow effects are impressive with detailed snow tacks and spray effects. With some more time and polish, NST could really make this game visually overwhelming.

Due to some unfortunate problems with the Cube Club generator that ran the DJ setup, I was actually able to hear the game’s audio. I only noticed one in-game song in the Cube Club edition, which had a very techno feel that did the original justice and just felt good while racing down the slopes. The current title screen music sounds lifted from the N64 game, and a few of the effects are probably the same for now, but such features don’t mean much with a Q3 release planned.

Overall, the game looks to have tons of potential, but whether it will remain dormant or not is up to NST. I had fun playing 1080: Avalanche (who wouldn’t have fun schooling Matt Cassamassina?), but there will have to be many more levels and play modes in the final version (cough, 4 players, cough) if Nintendo hopes to overcome the lastability issues that plagued the N64 title. I’m not hooked on 1080 yet, but I’m most certainly looking forward to seeing what new things appear in its E3 2003 showing.

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Genre Racing
Developer Nintendo Software Technology
Players1 - 4

Worldwide Releases

na: 1080: Avalanche
Release Dec 01, 2003
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: 1080: Silver Storm
Release Jan 22, 2004
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: 1080: Avalanche
Release Nov 28, 2003
PublisherNintendo
Rating3+
aus: 1080: Avalanche
Release Year 2004
PublisherNintendo
RatingGeneral
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