Review #656: 64 Memories - Snowboard Kids

 A literal slippery slope.

 Part 1: The Flashback
 Alright, so this is another one of those 'one of my first', but not the one kind you think, oh no, this was one of the first Nintendo 64 games I ever rented. Keep in mind that back then I didn't like racing games, but I loved this one, and eventually I got around getting my parents to purchase it for me.

 Now then, I really don't know why this game means so much to me, but for whatever reason, getting to play Snowboard Kids again was amazing. The music is fantastic, it sounds like cotton candy, if that makes any sense, coupled with the beautiful, silly art direction makes for the kind of game you don't see these days anymore. I swear, videogame music has never been the same as it was back during this era. I can remember the game's Instruction Booklet being quite a treat, with a ton of official art.

 Part 2: The Review
 As the name would lead you to believe, this is a snowboarding game, one in which you race against three other opponents in order to finish the amount of laps up and down a mountain. Or a slope. Or something similar, depends on the stage really! The game offers 5 playable characters, with an unlockable sixth, as well as 9 courses, with 3 extra stages waiting to be unlocked. You can also purchase different boards to race with with whatever price money you accumulate on the various modes. You can race with up to four players, and there are 3 bonus single player modes: Shoot, in which you must shoot down snowmen as you go through a stage, Trick, in which you try to amass the most points and speed in which you try to collect turbos and get down the mountain as fast as you can. There are also Time Trials, but who cares about those? Finally, there's a pretty decent tutorial that will teach you the basics.

 As you can probably tell from the art direction, this is a mascot racer, which means: Items. Peppered through the stage are coins as well as red and blue boxes. Coins are worth $100 each, and you can also earn money by performing tricks. These money can be collected after a race to purchase new boards... or during the race to buy items. You can carry up to two items, a red one and a blue one, each one costing $100. Blue items are utility items, like a stone to trip your rivals, turning invisible or the hilarious pan that hits everyone else on the stage. Red are projectiles which come in threes. I love how incredibly unfair red items can be. You can get turned into a snowman and lose all control until you hit a wall, get hit by an ice shard and get frozen solid(Be careful if you are the one shooting it, if your enemy is close you will probably crash against their frozen bodies!) or even get shot with a parachute and get to endure watching everyone pass you by as you slowly descend. It's particularly annoying, in a fun way, when you get hit with a parachute next to a gap, and now get to spend even MORE time on air. Fun times.

 Playing the game is pretty simple, you use the analog stick to move around, acceleration is automatic, and you can take sharp turns by holding down+the appropriate direction on the analog stick. B is your blue items while Z is the red ones. Tricks are performed by holding A and letting go, in order to jump, but holding a direction on the analog stick before letting go. You can also input special combinations to perform special tricks, longer but with a bigger payroll. The C buttons can be used to hold your board while performing simple tricks for even more money. One of the quirkiest things about the game are the flying chairs waiting at the bottom of the course to take you back to the top. Here characters have to wait their turn, so you'll be crashing against other players trying to be the next in line to go up the mountain and continue the race. This little mechanic is one of the things that set this game apart from others and made it so memorable!

 Snowboard Kids is a wonderful little racing game on the Nintendo 64. It's theme and mechanics set it apart from other mascot racers and turn it into more than a 'Mario Kart clone'. It's a bit skimpy on content, but what you get is pure quality. Game design is great, courses are memorable and the tunes, man, the music is 10/10 would listen to it over and over again. If you ask me, this is what the Nintendo 64 was all about: Cute, colorful, fun games.
 7.5 out of 10