Rippin' Riders
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Introduction Originally released last August in Japan under the title Cool Borders Burrrn, the game has been given a couple of new additions and undergone a title change in North America due to Sony's exclusive rights to the Cool Borders franchise. Also thrown in are Bonfire and Solomon licenses which includes some of their respective gear. The premise of the game is simple: head out to the wintery slopes using one of seven initial characters, and race for time and score. There are a couple of half pipe courses for those who want to let loose with the tricks and flips of snowboarding. The settings presented in the game are more on the fantasy side of life rather than reality. Those looking for a real life snowboard experience will come away a little disappointed. Does Rippin' Riders have what it takes to dethrone what I consider the champ of snowboarding games 1080 on the N64? Partly. Graphics Visually the graphics are one of the system's graphical highpoints. Some problems are present in some tracks where low polygon count and slowdown detract from the game. With the exception of the occasional slowdown the game maintains a healthy 60 frames per second refresh rate. Where the environments are stunning, the characters themselves could have used a little more detail. While the environments are gorgeous there are times where the awkward camera angle gives you a false sense of direction and you end up slamming into a wall and getting stuck or plunge to your death off some cliff you couldn't see. These inadequacies cause more than one instance of frustration. Audio I was very surprised to 'hear' that the soundtrack had been modified a little from the Japanese version. Additional techno and progressive house tunes have been added, giving the overall experience a little more edge to it, especially on some of the more slicker courses. The sound effects are standard fare for snowboarding games. The announcer sounds like some guy they picked up at a local California beach. In other words a tad over done and quite cheesy at times. |