Reviews / previews
Not everyone can be an extreme athlete. Personally, my weekend excitement quota is usually met with a serious round of extreme channel surfing. Thankfully, we have computer games. They give us armchair athletes a chance to experience thrills we wouldn't normally enjoy in everyday life - like racing down the slopes at 60 mph, getting some major air, and pulling off a frontside 360 rodeo.
Boarder Zone from Infogrames certainly delivers in the thrills department, providing a realistic sensation of speed and some awesome stunts. It looks great and it's a blast to play, but it suffers from a few flaws that prevent it from being the king of the mountain.
The game features four events - Race, Time Attack, Air, and Pipe. The first two are speed competitions, while the latter let you test your trick skills. With the simple control scheme, you'll be busting out a stalefish with the press of a button.
The music fits the action nicely and features some rockin' techno and alt-rock tunes. And the song tracks can be changed at anytime, in case a particular song starts to get on your nerves. The sounds are appropriately sparse, consisting mostly of the swish of your board and the occasional "Excuse me!" shouted by a passing racer, but an annoying announcer during the Air and Pipe competition grates on the ears.
Graphically, Boarder Zone is a treat. The character animations are smooth and lifelike and sport some nice touches like when the boarders windmill their arms to steady themselves during a jump. The tracks look fabulous: powder flies on sharp turns, boards leave tracks in the snow, and colored lighting makes night runs a feast for the eyes.
On the downside, riders start races hovering a foot off the ground, they occasionally pass right through the slopes, and when they wipe out, they tend to twitch like beetles flipped onto their backs. These are minor nuisances but they can detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
Also, Boarder Zone can be excessively difficult during races. The A.I. opponents are relentlessly aggressive, and if you fall behind in the pack it's nearly impossible to catch up. This can lead to some frustrating gaming sessions consisting of race-fall-quit-restart-repeat. Of course, if you're patient enough to memorize the tracks and find all the shortcuts, you'll be rewarded with extra tracks, although many gamers will probably never be able to unlock them. A way to adjust the difficulty would have been nice.
Still, Boarder Zone is a lot of fun. Gamers are sure to enjoy blasting down the hills and pulling off major stunts. And if you're willing to overlook a few technical issues, you'll find that Boarder Zone is a great game that will provide hours of excitement for armchair athletes everywhere.-- Brian Wright / GamePro
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