1080° ?

Ok, so 1080° is a bit of a weird name for a blog so I guess I should fill you guys in as to why its called 1080°.

1080° comes from the video game 1080° Snowboarding. It was a 3rd person racing game and was developed and published by Nintendo. It was released around the Christmas of 1998 I think, so about November/December is when I first picked it up. 

In 1080° there are 6 modes, 3 racing modes and 2 trick modes (Yeah you could do quite a lot of tricks in it and it was actually released before the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater *If I remember rightly*) and of course a training mode.

Race Modes:

Match Race: This was the equivalent of a "career" mode or whatever but to be honest It was more of an Arcade mode. Easy, Medium and Hard settings effected the style of courses as well as the AI. On Hard you had to race through all the courses as well as deal with a rather decent AI snowboarder. You also have a health meter so bail to many times and you lose a "life" you have 3 chances or "lives" throughout the mode and you'll have to retire and its game over if you lose them all. It was the kind of norm back then as well to have AI that "cheat" and caught up with you an this was a game that did that. One bail or bump an the AI was zooming past you as the speed of light in a matter of seconds. 

Time Attack: This one is pretty self explanatory... Race the courses, beat the times.

Multiplayer: I included this in here because it's actually a race mode, just instead of beating the AI you're beating your mate. Same courses, same choice in characters, same boards. It's just good old fashioned split screen multiplayer racing. (Yes I can't remember losing a game of Multiplayer on 1080°)

Trick Modes:

Contest: is similar (in a really weird way) to time attack only you pass through slalom gates on your way around the course to build up your time (Instead of trying to complete the course as fast as you can). Tricks earn you the points you need to succeed and it actually becomes quite hard sometimes if you miss a gate. Also about half way through Trick Attack you go to a new course which is like a bonus level. It's a giant ramp on a slope which you go down, jump off and do some serious 900° and 1080°'s

Trick Attack: in all fairness I hated Trick Attack but I loved the tricks. Imagine Time Attack but add the fact that you have to do a certain amount of certain tricks as well as racing. Also I should point out that some tricks like the 1080° required you to do like 9 actions or inputs like spinning the stick and pressing the R button etc. It was chaos.

Training Mode: is was actually really cool. The course was a totally different one to that of the other courses in the game. It had a half pipe as well as an area with ramps of varied size so you could get used to movement and also nailing the ticks. I spent so much time in the half pipe... 'cause lets face it, half pipes are cool.

Characters:

The characters in the game were varied, there were 5 to choose from.

Japan ( Kensuke Kimachi and Akari Hayami ) 

USA ( Rob Haywood ).

Canada ( Ricky Winterborn, he was my favourite )

 Dion Blaster ( UK ).

Bonus Characters were included in the game but had no specific names, they were announced as various hits and "tings" on metal. Fans have dubbed these characters, Ice Man and Gold Boarder (How original?) There is also a pretty funny Panda character which you could unlock as a replacement for Rob Haywood after you completed the Time Attack and Trick Attack modes in 1st place. This also unlocked a few new ticks that only the Panda could do. 

Boards: What's a Snowboarding game without a decent choice in boards? Nothing. There were a load to choose from and were actually real life boards which were for the 1999 collection. They all had varied stats the same as the characters did depending on what you wanted to do with them. There was also a Penguin Board unlock which saw the Character race standing on the back of a Penguin.. Hilarious. 

Summary: This isn't or wasn't actually meant to be a review of the game but It kind of turned out like it. There's actually so much for me to say about a game which to be perfectly honest will bore or seem generic to some people. Personally, I'm not too bothered. It was my childhood, it was something I spent hours and hours a day on. It was something that kept me going even when I'd raced ever race and nailed every trick a thousand times. I still play it every now and again for old times sake a mere 13 years after its release. If you don't have it or have never played it then buy it.