Nintendo Entertainment is the developer and publisher of the Extreme-genre game, 1080° Snowboarding, for the Nintendo platform Nintendo64 (N64) Rated at a mild "Everyone" by the ESRB, 1080° represented a major advance in the N-64's capability for displaying multitudes of textures, lighting effects, terrains, character skins, snowboards, sounds, and more. Sound effects are outstanding: you can hear players "oof"ing when they wipe out, you can hear snow falling in a blizzard, and you can hear your board scraping across the powder as you glide down the mountain.
Graphically, 1080° is just amazing. One second your board is skidding over ice, then next; you're drifting through powder so soft, it makes cotton balls look like brillo pads. A few moments later and you're sailing through the air, hoping you make it onto the top of the snow bank just ahead...phew. Made it. A character change to Ricky Winterborn, track change to the Half Pipe and you're ripping combo's like there's no tomorrow. Stiffy, 540, 360, Nosegrab, 1080, 180, holy moly, that's 25,000 points right there! Amazing! And all throughout this escapade, a soft voice lulls you, heralding the wonders and excitement of snowboarding, not caring if you're grinding a rail or getting a snowburn on your face.
The controls fit well with the N64 control pad. A and B buttons are used to jump and do various tricks, with the control stick used to control your boarder and, in conjunction with the B button, perform various spins and tricks. To spin along the Y-axis, the grey R buttons on top of the controller are used. If you crash, your character will automatically attempt to right itself, although you have to stop first. Ramming other character is allowed, however, it takes skill not to have your own character do a few unwanted cartwheels!
Different snowboards have different ratings in various categories. Board flex, edge, arch, and more are all displayed when you are selecting a board, using a bar-graph system. Different characters have different statistics for things such as speed, jump power, landing ability, stability, control, trick technique, and more. Ricky Winterborn is generally regarded as the best trickster, because although his speed is in the gutter, his technique and jump power makes him sail over the sun. Rob Haywood has a good balance of speed, stability and control; while he isn't the fastest, he can often beat those faster than him because he doesn't fall down as much, and he doesn't run into as many trees, canyon walls, buildings, etc etc.
2-Player head-to-head play is available, and if you have two controllers, you can invite your friend to an ass-kicking session on the slopes. Over 15 tracks can be played, ranging from twilight in the mountains to a mountain city, to a night-time ride on the slopes. Timed runs, trick runs, challenges where you play against multiple computer opponents, and practice run modes are all available. Personally, I think the game most needs support for three or four players, depending on how much screen space is actually needed to play the game comfortably.