Title: Big Air Genre: Snowboarding Publisher: Accolade Developer: Pitbull Syndicate Platform: Playstation Dual Shock Analog Controller Compatible: Yes # Of Players: 1-2

Snowboarding games are a relatively recent phenomenon. Hell, Snowboarding is a relatively recent phenomenon. However, it's no surprise that a myriad of snowboarding games have hit the market in the past year. The success of Sony's Cool Boarders series of snowboarding games has shown that snowboarding games are indeed a very viable genre. Big Air is Accolade's entrant into the snowboarding game arena, but first attempts are often sub standard.

The first that pops onto the screen upon booting up Big Air is a FMV sequence with a bunch of guys snowboarding and some fast SKA music. Games without FMV intros are incredibly rare in this day and age so it figures that Big Air would have one. The main select screen is the standard format with "One Player", "Two Player", "World Tour", "Training", and "Options" mode available for selection.

The single player mode in Big Air consists of five different modes, those being "Freeride: Race", "Freeride: Trick", "Halfpipe", "Big Air", and "Boardercross". The "Freeride: Race" mode pits you against a computer opponent in a race for the finish line. No points are awarded for tricks, which I'll discuss in greater detail a little later on. "Freeride: Trick" mode also pits you against a computer controlled opponent in a race for the finish line, but points are awarded and they're awarded based on the tricks that you perform and the race time remaining. The "Halfpipe" mode, as you might expect, consists of a snow covered halfpipe. Again, it's you versus a computer-controlled opponent, and points are awarded based on the complexity of the tricks you perform. Are you beginning to sense a pattern here? "Big Air" mode is you versus the computer opponent in a race down a long, straight downhill course. Points are awarded based on the number of successful tricks performed. Finally, "Boardercross" mode is a race between you and multiple computer opponents on a course containing a multitude of turns, obstacles, and jumps. The "Two Player" and "Training" modes have no fundamental differences from the multi player and training modes found in other games, so I needn't bother explaining them.

The "Options" mode has a myriad of options that let you do everything from adjusting your controller to centering or de-centering the screen to calibrating the analog stick and adjusting its sensitivity. You can also tweak the various aspects of the game's sounds, select from three difficulty levels. One of the cooler options in Big Air isn't accessible via the "Options" mode. In any of the various game modes you can select the type of snowboard you want, the clothes you want your snowboarder to wear, and which snowboarder you want. Actual pro snowboarders such as Ross Powers, Nicola Thost, and Michael Beallo are there to challenge you. Furthermore, actual snowboarding apparel companies are represent with clothes from the likes of Westbeach, Wave Rave, Arbor, and Joyride available for selection. This is nothing to get overly excited about, but it's still pretty cool.

Big Air definitely doesn't lack courses, as there are a total of twenty-four over six different international locations. The sound track, like the intro, is made up of SKA and speed rock tunes. The soundtrack features Gangster Fun, Limp, Caustic Notions, Monkey, The Odd Numbers, Snuff, Diesel Boy, Leatherface, Tantrum, and Anadalusia. I'm not a fan of SKA or speed rock so I didn't care for the music much, but if SKA and speed rock are your thing then the soundtrack would definitely please you. The sound effects are average, but I don't expect a snowboarding game to have great sound effects. As for the graphics, they're nice, but nothing that'll make your jaw drop.

It sounds fairly good so far, right? Well, now I've arrived at the portion of this review where I discuss gameplay and funfactor, and funfactor is where Big Air falls very short. As I promised a few paragraphs back, I'll give a brief explanation of the tricks. The tricks in Big Air are many. You can perform literally dozens of tricks using the analog stick or D-pad of your controller all of which look very cool when you pull them off. But (you knew a "but" was coming, right?), there is no sense of speed whatsoever. That's a huge problem in a snowboarding game. While I was playing I felt like everything was in slow motion. I found that by pressing the L2 button I could make my rider duck down and gain a slight amount of speed, but it wasn't enough. I felt like my snowboarder was crawling along. Also, the even after making the steering as sensitive as I possibly could I still found steering my rider to be a real chore. The steering in Big Air just isn't responsive. As I've said in many of my other reviews, gameplay and funfactor are the two most critical components of any game. The gameplay in Big Air is definitely top notch, but the control is extremely poor. So poor in fact that it takes a lot of the fun out of playing.

Unfotunately, the last snowboarding game I played was Val D'Isere Skiing and Snowboarding on the ill-fated Atari Jaguar. Therefore, I can't really tell you how Big Air stacks up in comparison to the Cool Boarders games or 1080 Snowboarding on the Nintendo 64. What I can say, and emphatically so, is that Big Air is ultimately a "ho-hum" game. The courses are cool, the tricks are very cool, and the graphics are nice, but it just isn't very fun to play. It's really a shame when one drawback hurts a game so badly, but that's precisely the case with Big Air. The speed problem and steering problems in Big Air make what could've been an excellent game merely average. Big Air is worth a rental, but if you're looking to buy a snowboarding game you need to look elsewhere.

* There are a few things of note I wanted to mention to all of you. First up, in a little over a weeks time E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, kicks of in LA. All of the latest and greatest games are going to be in the LA Convention Center. I'm going to be there covering the show and you can expect a full report to be available on Collector Times on May 16th. Secondly, a few months back Collector Times editor Sheryl Roberts announced that my column had been expanded to include Nintendo 64 reviews. It's been glaringly apparent that I haven't gotten many Nintendo 64 reviews up. Look for this to change in the coming months. Until next time.

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Copyright © 1998 Ian Johnston

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