Air Boarder 64

THE AIRBOARD. What a masterful piece of engineering. There can’t be a skateboarder anywhere who wouldn’t give their right arm for a real working version of one of these. I can still remember way back around when Back To The Future II came out that a rumour went around with the astonishing news that the airboards in the film were real working models, and everyone got quite excited. After all, we had jet fighters and hovercraft, so why not combine the two? Sadly though, be it mere rumour or a clever piece of PR, the airboards turned out not to be real – as any GCSE physics student knew all along.

Now though, through the magic of modern video game technology, the dream has finally come true. Okay, it’s not the same as having your own real-life board, but what can you do?

GENTLEMEN... START YOUR BOARDS!

You begin Airboarder with a choice of four characters and four different boards. The characters don’t seem to vary much as far as ability goes, but the board you choose will affect your performance as different boards are useful for different types of game. Some are good for speed, some for tricks, and so on. There are also a number of game modes to choose from:

The Lecture mode is self-explanatory, and also totally and utterly useless, as it relies on you being able to read screens and screens of Japanese text that are flung at you every time you attempt to pull off a move.

Coin mode is like the silver coin challenges in Rare’s Diddy Kong Racing. Throughout each level a number of coins are hidden and you must find all of them within a fairly generous time limit. It’s not so much a race as a treasure hunt, and gives you plenty of time to explore the various nooks and crannies peculiar to each level.

Street Work mode is similar to Time Attack (which shouldn’t need any explanation) in that you must progress around the course going from checkpoint to checkpoint. However, you are given more time, and the object is to make your way to the end of the course as stylishly as possible – that is, performing as many flashy stunts as you can along the way.

For those of you that don’t like your games defined by time limits and set patterns of moves, there’s the Free Run option. This essentially gives you the freedom to explore each course for as long as you like without having to worry about finding pesky checkpoints. The catch is that you don’t get any reward for your efforts, although it is a good way to work out the best routes around the convoluted landscapes of each course.

WEIRD LANDSCAPES!

The courses themselves are extremely varied. They range from a snowy cityscape through a stuntpark to a gigantic house, and they are massive. Unlike most racing games, the courses in Airboarder are not strictly linear. It doesn’t necessarily matter which route you take, only that you get to the next checkpoint within the time. In Street Work mode you can do the checkpoints in any order, leaving you free to roam the landscape and choose the route which gives you the best stunts.

Gameplay wise, Airboarder is very reminiscent of a snowboarding game... er, except that there’s no snow on most of the levels. In a nice change to the various snowboarding games we’ve played recently the tricks in Airboarder are extremely easy to accomplish. This probably has something to do with the fact that airboards, unlike snowboards, don’t have to abide by the usual rules of physics, and this is handy when performing such gravity-defying manoeuvres as a double 1080 (I kid you not). The characters in Airboarder are varied and fairly freaky, bearing more than a passing resemblance to the stars of a recent PlayStation fantasy role playing title.

One of the best things about Airboarder is the freedom which the game allows you. Unlike other snowboarding games I could mention, your boarders don’t fall over when they come across the slightest bump, and are in fact incredibly versatile in the range of moves they can do and places they can go. It’s possible to travel up most vertical surfaces, allowing you to reach pretty much anywhere you want on a course, and the only restriction seems to be that you can’t airboard across the ceiling, thus ruining my chance to make lots of Lionel Richie quips – oh well!

The only snag is that this freedom can be a bit of a nightmare when you’re trying to reach checkpoints as fast as possible in time attack mode. A wrong turn can result in you not only hitting a dead end, but also travelling up a wall, and before you realise what’s happened, you’ve flipped over and you’re travelling in completely the wrong direction with no idea of how to get back to where you were supposed to be.

A BIT OF A LET-DOWN

Two player mode, sadly, is a bit of a disappointment. This is mainly because it’s played in vertical split-screen thus reducing the visible play area, and this makes it difficult to see where you are going. Another problem in two-player mode is the map. It sits in the middle of the screen so that both players can see it, which is okay on the small levels like Green Park, but is a complete nightmare on the larger levels where it takes up virtually half of the screen! This is a shame, because two-player games are always a laugh (assuming you’ve got friends that is). However, the fact that the one player mode is extremely addictive goes some way towards making up for this.

AND IN CONCLUSION...

Overall, Airboarder 64 is fun, but the Japanese text and instructions make it difficult to work out how to get the most out of it, such as accessing the secret characters. If you absolutely can’t wait, and don’t mind messing with the Japanese text, then nip out and buy it, you’ll be getting a top racing game, at least in one player mode. If you’re happy to wait for the PAL translation though, it’s advisable to do so, as it’ll make the whole game even more playable, and hopefully they’ll sort out the two player maps!

1080 Snowboarding has captured the console snowboarding video game crown. So how do you improve upon a hit formula? Open up the playing fields and turn the snowboards into airboards!

This game is set in the future, where airboarding is a hugely popular spectator sport, with audiences in the millions. You can choose from one of eight characters (four of whom must be earned from beating certain levels and meeting specific time, point or trick requirements) who are all vying for the coveted title of "Master of AirBoardin'."

You have an arsenal of more than 80 different moves, including nose slides, tail grabs, hand plants and roast beefs (Roast beef? Is that a real-life move?). Individual characters also have special tricks at their disposal. But what really separates AirBoardin' USA from most snowboarding games (besides the use of hoverboards, of course) is the freedom to go anywhere. Players can go over snow, water, land, vertically up buildings, etc. No longer are players limited to tracks and half-pipes.

AirBoardin' USA will have several modes of play. Besides a typical time attack and Practice Mode, the game will have a Coin Mode, where players must ride around and find coins scattered about the course. AirBoardin' USA will also have a two-player Versus Mode and a free run (where you can just hoverboard around and explore for fun).

A Back To The Future-style hoverboard 'sim' combining racing and stunts. An acquired taste - you might try it and like or hate it.