The 32-bit era saw quite a few battles between similar titles. At the start of the generation, Daytona USA and Ridge Racer went head-to-head, and later Virtua Fighter 2 and Tekken 2. One forgotten battle from 1997 saw a three-way struggle between snowboarding sims, with the N64’s 1080 Snowboarding, the Sony published Cool Boarders, and the Saturn showcase Steep Slope Sliders all trying to claim themselves as king of the mountain.
How did this trend come about? It’s commonly believed to be due to the sport’s debut in the Olympics – forming part of the 1998 Nagano Winter Games – but we’re more inclined to believe it was due to all those ‘extreme’ Pepsi Max adverts. Snowboarding was a sport lots of people wanted to try for themselves, and the current crop of consoles was finally powerful enough to facilitate realistic snowboarding sims, offering something new and ‘cool’ in the process.
The PS1’s Cool Boarders was developed in 1996, the same year the console saw the first entries in the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and Crash Bandicoot franchises. This means it was a second generation PS1 game, boasting more technical proficiency over the launch period software. Like those three franchises just mentioned, Cool Boarders went on to gain several sequels. So, and to reiterate, this is a relatively early PS1 game that gained three more follow-ups, each adding more content and refinements.
With that in mind, it isn’t much of a surprise to find Cool Boarders has an early PS1 design ethos. It begins with a limp CGI intro showing a single snowboarder leaping from a peak, which then cuts to the title screen. From there, you’re able to view replays or jump into the main game. Rather than present a career or story mode to play through, you’re presented with three courses: novice, intermediate, and expert – each with tighter bends, steeper slopes, and more hazards than the last.
To Hamster’s credit, this re-release does a better job at explaining the controls and features than the game itself does, even featuring diagrams to explain the drifting and trick systems. It’s now possible to save anywhere, while saves are accessed from a virtual memory card. Incidentally, this is the Japanese version of the game, as evidenced by the Japanese text that appears when viewing the in-game ranking and ghost data. All other menus are in English.
We’re in arcade-style checkpoint racer territory here, with ghost data to save and race against upon passing the finishing line. Until that point, there are no rival racers. There is a slight layer of depth present courtesy of the trick system – which maps grabs to R1 and R2 – with each completed race ranked (scored) depending on both your time and the tricks performed. This means you can’t just dash to the finishing line; you’ll need to perform tricks when leaping over gaps and catching air too. Accompanying the action is a not too hot soundtrack, with one track sounding like a Surfin’ U.S.A. bootleg. At least the (presumably Jamaican) commentator is able to inject some much-needed personality.
Where Cool Boarders suffers the most, aside from a peculiar lack of content and no multiplayer modes, is within its handling. It’s as stiff as a board, you could say. Holding jump will lock the character in a single direction until letting go, while the drifting model is approaching a Ridge Racer level of simplicity, forcing you to turn gently at the risk of spinning out. Collide into the ‘walls’ of the racetrack and you’ll hear a cartoony sounding ‘thud’ before observing your chosen skater (male or female, with a choice of outfits) bounce off – again in a cartoon-like fashion.
Just to hammer home the arcade-like feel, after finishing a track you’re presented with a ‘Game Over’ screen before being abruptly thrown back to the main menu. In a weird way, this makes it a nice evolution of the Arcade Archives series; a pretty smart stepping stone. Those who have enjoyed Hamster’s re-releases of Namco’s 3D System 22 games might enjoy the checkpoint style racing Cool Boarders has to offer, rigid handling and all. If you’re expecting a typical console game experience, though, with multiplayer and lots of content to unlock, you won’t find that here. Even by 1996 standards, this was a pretty slim package, and one that’s curiously light on thrills for such an extreme sport.
Hamster’s Console Archives Cool Boarders is out now on PS5 and Switch 2. Original game by UEP Systems.