A missed opportunity with some saving graces
Basically a mission based snowboarding game with pretty graphics (but an unstable frame rate)...You are a secret agent who is doing investigations on the mountain...Board around the mountain taking "challenges" which reward you with "lift points" on successful completion which you use to take the "chairlift" to higher parts of the mountain where the game eventually concludes at the peak.
There are 5 snowboarders but you are initially only offered one...Completing the game unlocks the rest....But really, don't get too excited..repeating the game with any player is an identical experience, you start from the start and just do EXACTLY the same things all over again, with the same initial limitations (weak board, etc)...there is just no point, as the game is not too much fun to begin with. Once you have played it through i doubt you'll have any more use for it.
Doing tricks earns you equipment points which are used to upgrade your board and outfit, although the outfits are purely cosmetic....However I highly recommend you strive for the 2 million equipment points asap as it will unlock the fastest board and make some of the game's impossible challenges, well, possible. The basic board has no where near enough speed for example to even evade the ski patrol (which is a very early on challenge)...and it doesn't jump far (you'll need to jump pits for other challenges)
Just spend an hour continuously doing tricks, it will be incredibly boring but you'll rack up the equipment points sooner than you think, and go straight to the fastest board and play the game through with that.
The graphics, although detailed, have frame rate problems when there is a bit of decent action on the screen (an explosion, too many other boarders, just some examples)......
The sound is a NIGHTMARE. There is this stupid echo reverb effect on almost every voice, and the same things just continuously repeat over and over again. The music is no where near highly charged enough for a game based around speed...Maybe one or two tracks but that's about it. Turn the music volume down in the game and play your own tunes on your hifi..believe me, it'll be better.
Ok well....The tricks are all reasonably easy to pull off and everything is explained clearly in the manual...except, for the first hour I was trying to work out how to jib as the manual said to hold the b button before landing, when it was in fact the y button. I couldn't believe this, I was going crazy, wiping out every single time I tried to jib, I almost threw the gamecube out the window! Once I realised it was the y button, jibbing is actually the highlight of the game. As you get higher up the mountain there are some insane jibbing courses, and the exhilaration of this is intense and easily the game's best point., jumping from rail to rail!
Generally the challenges are something like finding a certain place, or person, or following one to diffuse a bomb (of which you must do 5)..or racing the ski patrol, or performing a certain amount of tricks, etc etc....There will be some repeating of challenges but about 75% of them can be beaten first attempt. Theres about 100 of them and all over these vast huge tracks so you'll have lots of exploring to do.. The ski jump, and a very special half pipe later in the game ( i wont give anything away there)..are a lot of fun, although challenges involving these are few and far between.
Ok, well, no amount of jib practise can prepare you for the ending scene. I tried this final challenge around 50 times to beat it, and it's very frustrating and ultimately unrewarding as the game has a weak ending. Let's just say the final challenge involves immaculately precise jibbing and timing through lots of different spots and yep..fall and you start it again every time. Fortunately with all the challenges holding the start key will give you an option to restart the challenge. Rather than having to play right through it if you are on a failing run.
Well, basically, there is not a whole lot to recommend this game. There is some fun to be had with jibbing around the crazy scenery, but really, it's mostly a long winded monotonous affair with unresponsive controls, horrible sound and music, and unstable graphics. Thankfully the trick system is generally easy to use(albeit with fussy timing) but the tricks get old pretty fast. You can unlock other special tricks by finding hidden icons throughout the game which adds some spark but overall I just can't give this game a thumbs up.