1080° Avalanche

Wax your board. This is the sickest ride ever!

EU release: 28th November 2003
NA release: 1st December 2003
JP release: 22nd January 2004
Developer: Nintendo Software Technology
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: 90%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

This game was originally going to be called White Storm, to tie it into Wave Race Blue Storm. In many ways, it is quite similar to Blue Storm in that it takes what its N64 counterpart does and… not much else. It ends up feeling more like a rehash rather than a sequel that properly expands on what made it good.

The single player structure is the same series of 1v1 races where you have to play a few tracks on one difficulty, then play an additional track for each new difficulty. It’s a rather annoying way to pad out a game. There is one additional kind of event in this mode, though: a time trial that takes place during an avalanche.

The handling does feel extremely tight and the races are fun. Tricks do help you build up your power meter this time, although it is better to not perform tricks for the most part as jumping can slow you down. On the later difficulties, you do need to learn the courses extremely well and there’s more focus on the skill of navigating the courses rather than tricks.

There are a few additional modes like one where you need to go through gates, a trick mode and a time trial where you need to collect coins to progress. There’s also multiplayer with split screen or LAN support for up to four players, however only a few tracks are available. Avalanche is a fun game, but there’s a lot of competition in snowboarding games.

Fun

SSX3 is undoubtedly the bigger game – there’s much more to see and do the first time you ply through it. 1080, on the other hand, is very short, but is the better produced game in terms of handling and visuals (especially the snow effects).
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #89

Remake or remaster?

A remaster of this would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get 1080° Avalanche.