is an arcade

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 ...

developed and released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

in 1996. It runs on Namco System Super 22 hardware, and is based on their ''

Alpine Racer is a racing sports video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It had a limited release in December 1994, followed by a wide release in July 1995. It ran on the Namco System 22 arcade hardware. The player uses a handlebar controll ...

'' series of snowboarding games. The game also allows two cabinets to be linked together, supporting cooperative play, much like their ''

Final Lap is a 1987 racing simulation video game developed and published by Namco. Atari Games published the game in the United States in 1988. It was the first game to run on Namco's then-new System 2 hardware and is a direct successor to Namco's ''Pol ...

'' and ''

Winning Run is a first-person arcade racing simulation game developed and published by Namco in late December 1988 in Japan, before releasing internationally the following year. The player pilots a Formula One racer, with the objective being to complete eac ...

'' series.

Gameplay

The player controls a snowboarder by using a snowboard controller mounted to the base of the cabinet, which the player is meant to stand atop of. The game features two game modes, "Free Riding Mode" and "Gate Racing Mode", as well as two difficulties, Novice and Expert. In Free Riding Mode, the player is freely allowed to snowboard down a mountain while performing air tricks, and must make it down to the bottom before the timer reaches zero. In Gate Race Mode, the player must race against CPU-controlled opponents and must make it down to the bottom in first place, and again must make it towards the bottom before the timer reaches zero. Much like the original ''Alpine Racer'', the player can unlock a hidden character by holding down the Selection button while pressing the Decision button seven times.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Alpine Surfer'' on their August 15, 1996 issue as being the third most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month. In Europe, the game was popular in British arcades, drawing casual players who do not normally play video games. '' Next Generation'' gave the game three out of five stars: "If the developers had taken the game further, it would have been great. As it is, ''Alpine Surfer'' – the only snowboarding coin-op in the world – is just a good one".

Reviews

*''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

'' (CVG) (Sep, 1996)

References

External links

''Alpine Surfer''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

''Alpine Surfer''
at

Giant Bomb ''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by ''Time'' mag ...

''Alpine Surfer''
at

Killer List of Videogames Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) is a website featuring an online encyclopedia devoted to cataloging arcade games past and present. It is the video game department of the International Arcade Museum, and has been referred to as "the IMDb for pla ...

''Alpine Surfer''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpine Surfer 1996 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Namco arcade games Namco games Namco System 22 games Snowboarding video games