PTE17: Join Me on the Piste

[Neon Ignition]

This Friday see's the sixth and newest SSX game released and is already starting to garner positive reviews. It leans again towards the arcade approach to the sport and uses a form of Autolog which makes it one of the more competitive entries we've seen. This generation has seen less of the genre than the previous ones mass of titles but it seems everyone has picked up a favourite somewhere along the line.

Which snowboarding games are you most fond of and what style of gameplay do you think works best for this genre?

The poll above contains some the best regarded titles, most successful series and a couple of the more notable misfires which sometimes have defending voices. Pick out your King of the Slopes!

[koopatroopa90]

SNOWBOARD KIDS.

(seriously, I still play it now)

But from that list, Tricky (on the GC, didn't like the PS2 version controls for some reason) and then I guess 1080 N64.

[BaronSqwelch]

Tricky on the Cube for me too!!

Do have fond memories of a couple of Coolboarders games too but thats mainly cuz we used to play them after raves when we couldnt sleep for some reason, rather than because they were actually good!! Hated 1080 tbh, much prefer over the top arcadey snowboard games. The opposite for Skateboard games strangely.

[rmoxon]

Cool Borders 2.

Havent played it for years though, like many a PS1 title Im doubtful that it holds up that well these days.

[Flabio]

Never been a huge fan of any of them, but I did like the flowing 'menu' system in SSX3.

[chopemon]

AMPED 3 IS GODDAMN INCREDIBLE.

I wrote it off but after exhausting all the 360 launch games I picked it up and fell in love.

Did anyone see that Kotaku post about SSX yesterday? If you play the demo and just put the pad down, there is a good chance that you will end the race in third without pressing any buttons.

GAMEPLAY.

[nakamura]

Amped was the killer app for me, it felt like a natural progression from the sublime 1080 Snowboarding.

[Dogg Thang]

Got to be honest - I haven't played most of those. Played 1080, a couple of SSX games and the Cool Boarders games. I voted for Cool Boarders 2. The tracks were great, handling was fantastic in its day and it had a real sense of descent. I loved it.

[Skull Commander]

Amped 2 for me although I haven't played it for a while so it may not be as good as I remember. It was certainly better than Amped 3 though, which I hated at first, then enjoyed followed by swiftly going off it again. The "wacky" border humour was a major thing for me to get past, and while I have been reading that others on here thought it was hilarious, I just found it cringe-worthy.

At the moment the only game I still have from that above list is 1080 Avalanche, which is great at what it does, but it's more like a racing game rather than a trick based snowboarding title.

[charlesr]

As I mentioned elsewhere yesterday Stoked > 1080 > 1080 Avalance > Amped 3 > everything else.

Cool Boarders were "cool" but ultimately a bit ****. Playing them now is just depressing. However, 1080 on the N64 still holds up incredibly well - the controls were so sorted and the feeling of lightweight skipping across the snow.

Stoked takes it though because of the "powder" feel.

[Geoff D]

Still 1080 N64 for me - so much fun on the halfpipe score attack.

[Neon Ignition]

I was all set to pick 1080 Snowboarding despite some good memories of Steep Slope Sliders but some dabbling over the last night or two has surprised me how well SSX On Tour has aged and how accomplished it is.

[Guts]

What does the thread title mean? "Piste" means "point" or "dot" in Finnish...

[charlesr]

Piste = groomed part of the mountain.
Off Piste = powder/back country

[Charlie]

1080's my favorite, but I've only played half a dozen of the games in the poll.

I like my snowboarding games to look realistic, for the mechanics to reflect real physics, and for the gameplay to be quite unforgiving. The SSX demo bought back very fond memories of playing 1080 and has persuaded me to pick up Stoked.