Evolution Snowboarding

Year 20XX: Earth is plagued by an inexplicable and lethal change in climate.

NA release: 25th February 2003
EU release: 28th March 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
NGC Magazine: 23%
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

Even though this is made by Konami and bears a similar name, this is not an extreme sports game like Extreme Skateboarding. In fact, I’m not really sure what genre it fulfils. The tricks are little more than spinning to damage enemies, there’s not really any racing, just time trials. I suppose the closest is a beat-’em-up, as it does contain signature weapons and cooked chicken health items. But it’s an awful example of one of those, too.

The setting is very similar to Dark Summit. The military has taken over a mountain, and you have to use snowboarding skills to defeat various bosses. However, it lacks any charm that Dark Summit had and you just select missions from a menu, so you never get a feel for the slopes, and while they have distinct themes, they’re all rather ugly. Interestingly, the back of the box details a plot that is not mentioned in the game at all.

The gameplay is pretty much the same: go forward, ignore most grinds (they barely work and slow you down massively) and mash the attack buttons to dispatch enemies. Some enemies attack you in more annoying ways than others, and that’s about it. Bosses so require some tactical thinking, although it’s on the level as “move away from them when they do their obvious attack animation”

The biggest issue is that snowboarding in Extreme Snowboarding is just incredibly monotonous. In Dark Summit, I was constantly doing tricks just for fun while here I pretty much ignored it as it’s faster to do so. Turning is very delayed and there’s no sense of speed. A game based entirely on the dry ski slope in Llandudno would be more extreme than this.

Worst

It’s monumentally dull, and there’s every chance you won’t have the willpower to press restart if you get tonked by the first boss. Games are supposed to be entertaining, not punishing, and this one fails to deliver anything that could make us recommend it, certainly not at £40 a pop. SSX Tricky is much better. Even Dark Summit is better. In fact, spending your money on a bumper pack of ice-cold meths and falling unconscious in a gutter may well be more enjoyable than this.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #79

Remake or remaster?

Dark Summit is already an immensely improved version of this game, and it came out first.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Evolution Snowboarding.