1080° Snowboarding
Encyclopedia
, often referred to as just 1080°, is a snowboard racing video game developed and published by Nintendo
for the Nintendo 64
and first released in Japan
on February 28, 1998. It was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console
service in 2008. The player controls one of five playable snowboarders from a third-person perspective using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks over eight levels
.
1080° was announced on November 21, 1997 and developed over nine months; it garnered critical acclaim and won an Interactive Achievement Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. 1080° sold over a million units, and a second installment, 1080° Avalanche
, was released for the Nintendo GameCube
on November 28, 2003.
, the R button, and the B button; point values are allocated based on complexity and required time. The two types of tricks are grab tricks, in which the board is grabbed in a specific way, or spin tricks, in which the snowboarder spins the board a certain number of degrees. The 1080° spin requires nine actions, the most of any trick in the game.
In match race mode, the player competes in a series of races against AI
-controlled snowboarders. The game times the player throughout the level and players receive a damage meter which fills if the snowboarder falls down or is knocked over. The difficulty level in match races can be set to easy, medium, or hard, adjusting the complexity and number of races. If the player fails at defeating an AI competitor, they must retire. The player is given three chances to beat the computer before the game is over.
1080° was programmed by Englishmen Giles Goddard and Colin Reed, developed and published by Nintendo
, and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto
. Goddard and Reed had previously programmed Wave Race 64
, which sold over a million copies and was a huge commercial success. Its sequel, Wave Race: Blue Storm
, would feature characters from 1080°.
When developing 1080°, Goddard and Reed used a technique called "skinning" to eliminate joints between the polygons composing the characters. Their programming used a combination of standard animation and inverse kinematics
, creating characters whose appearance during collisions is affected by what object is hit, what direction the collision occurs in, and the speed at which the collision takes place. Tommy Hilfiger
outfits and Lamar snowboards appear throughout 1080° as product placement
. 1080°' s soundtrack of "techno and rappy beats" with "thrashy, foozed-out vocals" was composed by Kenta Nagata, who also composed soundtracks for Mario Kart 64
and other Nintendo games.
1080°s development took place from April or May 1997 to March 1998. The game was released on February 28, 1998 in Japan and on April 1, 1998 in North America. Nintendo delayed the game's European release because they hoped to boost sales with a winter release; 1080° was eventually released on November 30, 1998, in Europe and the PAL region
.
and 90% on Game Rankings
. It won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
' 1999 Console Sports Game of the Year award and was called "one of the best values in both sports and racing gaming" by GameSpot. 1080° has been perceived to be a leader among snowboarding titles at the time since it was "so good...that it took publishing giant Electronic Arts
several years and a far more powerful console to give it solid competition" in the form of the SSX
franchise. Edge
hailed it as the "most convincing videogame emulation of the snowboarding experience so far" with an "atmosphere of sobriety" unlike any other Nintendo game at the time.
The game's graphics were of the highest quality for the Nintendo 64
at the time. Critics praised general aspects of the game's graphics such as their crispness, detail, smoothness, and lack of polygon dropout. More specifically, critics praised the game's camera use, the game's "very solid" physics model, the impression of racers' speed, and the game's snow effects (sun reflected in the snow as appropriate, and fluffy snow and packed snow appeared and behaved differently). Graphical faults identified by critics included occasional pop-up, misplaced shadows, and lag when racers passed through on-track trees; these problems were generally identified as minor.
Although writing a positive review, Edge found faults in the game's AI; they asserted 1080° suffered from “cheating” CPU opponents. They criticized the AI's simplicity and ability to quickly catch up to the player near the end of a race; they also noted the AI's "limited series of predetermined routes" and the possibility of a player learning where and when an AI falls over, "offering an opportunity to pass [the computer], but conveying little satisfaction with it." Edge also stated that the PAL release delay "is frankly ludicrous." They believed that, due to Nintendo's slump of noteworthy releases, "any quality title is likely to top the charts with little difficulty."
Allgame
considered the "highly technical" control scheme of 1080° one of the game's strengths despite its initial difficulty. CVG
positively reviewed the control scheme, but disagreed on its difficulty, noting "the controls have been implemented so brilliantly that you're able to play perfectly well with just one hand on the stick and Z button." GameSpot called the game's control "thoroughly involving" and said that "[t]he crouch move alone - which makes for supertight turns - makes this fun to play." The music was also generally praised, with IGN calling it "a shining example of what can be achieved on the format" and Allgame calling it "one of the best N64 soundtracks to date." Gamebits, however, criticized the soundtrack as "minimal" and insufficient. 1080°s sound effects were critically praised as "some perfect sound effects".
In a retrospective review by the Official Nintendo Magazine in 2006, Steve Jarratt commented that 1080° "boasted the best videogame representation of snow," and was complemented by "swooshy" sound effects. Positive comments were also made about handling and the quality of the multiplayer. In summary, Jarratt believed "this was a straight-up snowboarder, stunt-free but fast and fun."
which sold 1,950,000 units in the United States and 154,000 in Japan. In 2001, one of 1080°s snowboarders, Kensuke Kimachi, appeared on a trophy in the game Super Smash Bros. Melee
. 1080° Avalanche
, a sequel to 1080°, was released for the Nintendo GameCube
in 2003; Avalanche received a harsher critical reception, averaging 73/100 on Metacritic
, due to "frame rate issues and limited gameplay". 1080° was re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console
service in Japan on January 15, 2008, Europe on January 18, 2008 and North America on January 28, 2008. The BGM for Golden Forest can be heard in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
and first released in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on February 28, 1998. It was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
service in 2008. The player controls one of five playable snowboarders from a third-person perspective using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks over eight levels
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
.
1080° was announced on November 21, 1997 and developed over nine months; it garnered critical acclaim and won an Interactive Achievement Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. 1080° sold over a million units, and a second installment, 1080° Avalanche
1080° Avalanche
1080° Avalanche is a snowboarding game for the Nintendo GameCube, developed by Nintendo's in-house development studio, NST, and published by Nintendo. Avalanche is a sequel to 1080° Snowboarding for the Nintendo 64. The game has an emphasis on racing, rather than doing tricks, in contrast to other...
, was released for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
on November 28, 2003.
Gameplay
The player controls a snowboarder in one of six modes. 1080° has two trick modes (trick attack and contest), three race modes (race, time attack, and multiplayer), a training mode, and an options mode. The objective of the game is either to arrive quickly at a level's finish line or to receive maximum points for trick combinations.Trick modes
In 1080°s two trick modes, trick attack and contest, players accrue points from completed tricks. In contest mode, players perform tricks and snowboard past flags for points. Trick attack mode requires players to perform a series of tricks throughout a designated level. The game features 25 tricks, all of which are performed by using a combination of circular positions of the control stickNintendo 64 controller
The Nintendo 64 controller is the standard game controller included with the Nintendo 64. Released by Nintendo in late 1996 in Japan and North America, and 1997 in Europe, it features ten buttons, one digital "Control Stick" and a directional pad, all laid out in a "M" shape.-Design:The controller...
, the R button, and the B button; point values are allocated based on complexity and required time. The two types of tricks are grab tricks, in which the board is grabbed in a specific way, or spin tricks, in which the snowboarder spins the board a certain number of degrees. The 1080° spin requires nine actions, the most of any trick in the game.
Race modes
1080° has three race modes; in these modes, victory can be achieved by taking separate routes within a course and balancing the snowboarder after a jump to avoid speed loss. Tricks are scored in race modes, but do not count toward victory.In match race mode, the player competes in a series of races against AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
-controlled snowboarders. The game times the player throughout the level and players receive a damage meter which fills if the snowboarder falls down or is knocked over. The difficulty level in match races can be set to easy, medium, or hard, adjusting the complexity and number of races. If the player fails at defeating an AI competitor, they must retire. The player is given three chances to beat the computer before the game is over.
Characters
Players may initially choose from five snowboarding characters: two from Japan, and one each from Canada, USA, and the United Kingdom. Each snowboarder has different abilities and is suited for different levels and modes, since each has varying statistics in fields such as technique, speed, and weight. Three additional snowboarders are unlocked by completing certain game levels and modes. Eight snowboards are initially available for every character, and one additional snowboard may be unlocked later in the game. Each board also excels in different situations, since each have different strengths in categories such as balance and edge control.Development
1080°s release was announced on November 21, 1997 at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show; the game's working title was then Vertical Edge Snowboarding. Before the game's release, journalists were able to play 1080° at the January 1998 Nintendo Gamers' Summit.1080° was programmed by Englishmen Giles Goddard and Colin Reed, developed and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
. Goddard and Reed had previously programmed Wave Race 64
Wave Race 64
is a racing game for the Nintendo 64 that was released on September 27, 1996 in Japan and on November 5, 1996 in North America. In Wave Race 64 the player races on jet skis in many different weather conditions, on a variety of different courses. The game was sponsored by the Kawasaki Heavy...
, which sold over a million copies and was a huge commercial success. Its sequel, Wave Race: Blue Storm
Wave Race: Blue Storm
Wave Race: Blue Storm is a wave runner racing game released as a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube on September 14, 2001. A sequel to the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Wave Race 64, Wave Race: Blue Storm was developed by Nintendo-owned development studio, NST and published by Nintendo.-Championship...
, would feature characters from 1080°.
When developing 1080°, Goddard and Reed used a technique called "skinning" to eliminate joints between the polygons composing the characters. Their programming used a combination of standard animation and inverse kinematics
Inverse kinematics
Inverse kinematics is a subdomain of kinematics, which is of particular interest in robotics and computer animation. In contrast to forward kinematics, which calculates the position of a body after a series of motions, inverse kinematics calculates the motions necessary to achieve a desired...
, creating characters whose appearance during collisions is affected by what object is hit, what direction the collision occurs in, and the speed at which the collision takes place. Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob "Tommy" Hilfiger is an American fashion designer and founder of the premium lifestyle brand Tommy Hilfiger.-Early life:...
outfits and Lamar snowboards appear throughout 1080° as product placement
Product placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
. 1080°
Mario Kart 64
is a racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second installment in the Mario Kart series. It was released in 1996 in Japan and in 1997 in North America and Europe. In January 2007, Mario Kart 64 was released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii...
and other Nintendo games.
1080°s development took place from April or May 1997 to March 1998. The game was released on February 28, 1998 in Japan and on April 1, 1998 in North America. Nintendo delayed the game's European release because they hoped to boost sales with a winter release; 1080° was eventually released on November 30, 1998, in Europe and the PAL region
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...
.
Reception
Critics generally praised 1080°, which had an average score of 88/100 on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
and 90% on Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
. It won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences , founded in 1996, is a non-profit organization that promotes computer and video game entertainment with the annual D.I.C.E. Summit event, where its Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony has been held annually since 1998...
' 1999 Console Sports Game of the Year award and was called "one of the best values in both sports and racing gaming" by GameSpot. 1080° has been perceived to be a leader among snowboarding titles at the time since it was "so good...that it took publishing giant Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
several years and a far more powerful console to give it solid competition" in the form of the SSX
SSX (series)
SSX is a series of snowboarding and skiing videogames published by EA Sports BIG. It is an arcade-style racing game with larger-than-life courses, characters, and tricks...
franchise. Edge
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
hailed it as the "most convincing videogame emulation of the snowboarding experience so far" with an "atmosphere of sobriety" unlike any other Nintendo game at the time.
The game's graphics were of the highest quality for the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
at the time. Critics praised general aspects of the game's graphics such as their crispness, detail, smoothness, and lack of polygon dropout. More specifically, critics praised the game's camera use, the game's "very solid" physics model, the impression of racers' speed, and the game's snow effects (sun reflected in the snow as appropriate, and fluffy snow and packed snow appeared and behaved differently). Graphical faults identified by critics included occasional pop-up, misplaced shadows, and lag when racers passed through on-track trees; these problems were generally identified as minor.
Although writing a positive review, Edge found faults in the game's AI; they asserted 1080° suffered from “cheating” CPU opponents. They criticized the AI's simplicity and ability to quickly catch up to the player near the end of a race; they also noted the AI's "limited series of predetermined routes" and the possibility of a player learning where and when an AI falls over, "offering an opportunity to pass [the computer], but conveying little satisfaction with it." Edge also stated that the PAL release delay "is frankly ludicrous." They believed that, due to Nintendo's slump of noteworthy releases, "any quality title is likely to top the charts with little difficulty."
Allgame
Allgame
Allgame is a commercial database of information about arcade games, video games and console manufacturers.Allgame is owned by All Media Guide, along with Allmusic and Allmovie....
considered the "highly technical" control scheme of 1080° one of the game's strengths despite its initial difficulty. CVG
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
positively reviewed the control scheme, but disagreed on its difficulty, noting "the controls have been implemented so brilliantly that you're able to play perfectly well with just one hand on the stick and Z button." GameSpot called the game's control "thoroughly involving" and said that "[t]he crouch move alone - which makes for supertight turns - makes this fun to play." The music was also generally praised, with IGN calling it "a shining example of what can be achieved on the format" and Allgame calling it "one of the best N64 soundtracks to date." Gamebits, however, criticized the soundtrack as "minimal" and insufficient. 1080°s sound effects were critically praised as "some perfect sound effects".
In a retrospective review by the Official Nintendo Magazine in 2006, Steve Jarratt commented that 1080° "boasted the best videogame representation of snow," and was complemented by "swooshy" sound effects. Positive comments were also made about handling and the quality of the multiplayer. In summary, Jarratt believed "this was a straight-up snowboarder, stunt-free but fast and fun."
Sales and legacy
1080° sold 1,230,000 units in the United States, and over 23,000 in Japan. It did not, however, match the success of the programmers' first game, Wave Race 64Wave Race 64
is a racing game for the Nintendo 64 that was released on September 27, 1996 in Japan and on November 5, 1996 in North America. In Wave Race 64 the player races on jet skis in many different weather conditions, on a variety of different courses. The game was sponsored by the Kawasaki Heavy...
which sold 1,950,000 units in the United States and 154,000 in Japan. In 2001, one of 1080°s snowboarders, Kensuke Kimachi, appeared on a trophy in the game Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as , often abbreviated as SSBM or simply as Melee, is a crossover fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in . It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Bros., and the predecessor to the Wii game Super Smash...
. 1080° Avalanche
1080° Avalanche
1080° Avalanche is a snowboarding game for the Nintendo GameCube, developed by Nintendo's in-house development studio, NST, and published by Nintendo. Avalanche is a sequel to 1080° Snowboarding for the Nintendo 64. The game has an emphasis on racing, rather than doing tricks, in contrast to other...
, a sequel to 1080°, was released for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
in 2003; Avalanche received a harsher critical reception, averaging 73/100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, due to "frame rate issues and limited gameplay". 1080° was re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
service in Japan on January 15, 2008, Europe on January 18, 2008 and North America on January 28, 2008. The BGM for Golden Forest can be heard in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.