Game #1028: Cool Boarders 4

 We're almost down this hill...

 After the developers changed and they got to make their own different but interesting take on the series I was excited to see what they would do with Cool Boarders 4. Well, it turns they didn't do much of anything, as the game is as derivative as it gets.

 Modes are similar to the third game, you can play a Single Event, a Tournament or Practice, but there's a new 'Trickmaster' in which you must perform specific tricks as you go down a hill. Like before, the game is divided into 5 mountains and each mountain has its own set of six events: Downhill, a race against other boarders, Slope Style, in which you race by yourself while scoring points, Half Pipe and Big Air which are self-explanatory, CBX, which is a race against other players while trying to go on the right side of certain gates and, lastly, the six event is single player-only and specific to each mountain. You might have to bump against every snowman on the track, or go down a hill while avoiding aliens. This sixth event is were most of the developers creative juices were put to work, which is a shame as it seems that's the only place in which this game shines.

 Seems extreme sports hit their stride by this time, because now racers are made up of, mostly, real boarders. There's an extremely basic character creator, to the point that you might not even want to bother. Cool Boarders have never had the best character models around, but.... why is everyone's head so big? This game is supposed to have real boarders, but they look SO weird. Honestly, the character models really threw me off.

 I thought that the previous game needed more speed, and, well, there is more speed in this one, which is welcome. Gameplay is exactly the same, with the jump charge gauge, streamlined trick system and even punching left or right is back for whatever reason. So, in theory the game should be better, since it plays exactly the same but faster, right? Well.... The tracks just feel so uninspired. Not counting the special events, every single track might as well be the same. The previous game had much more variety, the terrain might be different, the time of the day might be different, there were various visual clues to set each set of tracks apart. In this one, every race but the event ones feel the same.

 Yeah... Cool Boarders 4 wasn't exactly what I was expecting, seems like the series will end end up dying since it refused to evolve. That said, since the next game would make the jump into the PS2 I'm still hopeful that we can end on a high note. And mind you, the game is far, far from being bad, it's just that I expected something more of such a long-running PS1 series.

 6.0