''1080° Avalanche'' is a

snowboarding video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport (s ...

for the

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, developed by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

's in-house development studio,

Nintendo Software Technology Nintendo Software Technology Corporation, doing business as Nintendo Software Technology (NST), is an American video game developer. NST was created by Nintendo as a first-party developer to create games for the North American market, though their ...

, and published by Nintendo. It was released in 2003 in Europe and North America, and in Japan on January 22, 2004. ''Avalanche'' is a sequel to the 1998 video game ''

1080° Snowboarding is a snowboarding video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, the player controls one of five snowboarders from a Virtual camera system#Third-person view, third-person perspective, using a combinati ...

'' for the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

. In contrast to similar snowboarding games such as the '' SSX series'', the game emphasizes more on downhill racing than stunts and tricks. Gameplay can output in

480p 480p is the shorthand name for a family of video display resolutions. The p stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The ''480'' denotes a vertical resolution of 480 pixels, usually with a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels and 4:3 ...

and

Dolby Pro Logic II Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo (also known as ''Dolby MP'' or ''Dolby SVA'') was developed by Dolby in 1976 f ...

and supports four players on one GameCube as well as LAN play with up to four GameCubes.

Gameplay

Similar to ''

'', gameplay focuses on racing more than performing stunts. There are differences between this game and ''Snowboarding'', with one being the ''Avalanche'' - the final event of every Match Race challenge is a daredevil run through an avalanche-prone trail where the player has to outrun an avalanche that starts in the middle of the run or even at the very start. In over 20 courses, the players can compete in the main Match mode, along with Trick Attack, Time Trial and Gate modes. Unlike the first game, each rider has unique boards, and up to three new boards for each character can be unlocked along with bonus boards, which are surreal objects replacing the snowboard, such as a penguin or a

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

controller.

Development and release

In 1999, a sequel to ''1080° Snowboarding'' was announced for the Nintendo 64. Second-party studio Left Field was responsible for development, but when the studio revoked its status as a second-party studio to focus on multi-format titles, the game failed to materialize. Development of the game was handed to Nintendo's American development studio, Nintendo Software Technology Corporation (NST), who would migrate the title to Nintendo's newest venture, the

. ''1080°: Avalanche'' was released in both single-disc and double-disc versions. The second disc is a standard

miniDVD MiniDVD (also Mini DVD or miniDVD) is a DVD disc which is in diameter. Most MiniDVDs hold 1.4 GB of data, but there are variants that hold up to 5.2 GB. The MiniDVD is also known as a "3 inch DVD", referring to its approximate diameter in inc ...

featuring a half-hour of snowboarding footage alongside gameplay footage set to soundtracks from the game. This version was exclusively available at

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and can be differentiated by the presence of a red sash on the front cover.

Reception

It received a score of 7.5/7/5.5 from ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

''.

Dan Hsu Dan "Shoe" Hsu (born 1971) is the former editorial director of the 1UP Network, as well as former editor-in-chief of the video game magazine ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', a position he held from 2001 to 2008.

, the first reviewer, found fault with the game's trick system, while the third reviewer Shawn Elliott severely criticised it, who believed that ''Avalanche'' can't compete with ''

SSX 3 ''SSX 3'' is a snowboarding video game developed by EA Vancouver and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. The game was originally released on October 20, 2003, for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It was later ported ...

''.

Notes

References

External links

*
''1080° Avalanche''
at

Nintendo.com is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards ...

archives
of th
original
at the

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) * {{DEFAULTSORT:1080 Avalanche 2003 video games GameCube games GameCube-only games 1080° (video game series) Nintendo Software Technology games Racing video games Snowboarding video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States