1080° Snowboarding might not be the most well-known title from Nintendo, but it certainly found an audience when it released for the N64 1998. In fact, the original outing did well enough to warrant a GameCube sequel, 1080° Avalanche. All of this was quite a surprise to 1080° Snowboarding’s lead designer, who didn’t see a bright future for the game at all.
In an interview with Retro Gamer Magazine, lead designer Giles Goddard revealed that he originally thought the game might not even release due to a low internal testing score, but even if it did make it to the public, he thought it would be a flop.
“It got a really low score in the internal Nintendo tests, anything under a six is bad and they don’t usually release the game. I just thought it was going to be a complete flop. But it goes to show that even Nintendo doesn’t know what games are going to sell. I was surprised that they actually didn’t drop it because it didn’t really cost them that much to make it and it wasn’t adding to any of their franchises at the time.”
1080° Avalanche went on to sell roughly 1.25 million units worldwide, proving that it was quite the opposite of a flop. If you’ve never had the chance to play this unique snowboarding game, you can look forward to it joining the Switch Online Expansion Pack sometime in the near future.
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the_crimson_lure
"But it goes to show that even Nintendo doesn’t know what games are going to sell."
Considering Nintendo put this game out despite low internal scores, doesn't that imply the opposite; that someone in Nintendo knew it was worth releasing?
Nintendo makes some big mistakes too, but that quote seems like an out-of-place conclusion.
the_crimson_lure
1y ago"But it goes to show that even Nintendo doesn’t know what games are going to sell."
Considering Nintendo put this game out despite low internal scores, doesn't that imply the opposite; that someone in Nintendo knew it was worth releasing?
Nintendo makes some big mistakes too, but that quote seems like an out-of-place conclusion.
mereel
1y agoI bought this back in the day, as a teenager. X-games and “extreme” sports were all the rage in the late 90s. Video games based on this were sometimes dubious quality. 1080 shone. I don’t know why it received a low score on internal testing. That’s odd.
When this game released, it was lauded for many unique graphical flourishes such as powdered snow collecting on the boarder’s coat, and wind physics causing the gear to flap around in the wind. Plus the trick system was tough to master, giving the game depth. It even had 2-player split screen. Good times!
It’s main flaw in my opinion, was that it was so short. I think there were 5 courses maybe, plus a half-pipe and a “big jump”. Though low content was an N64 hallmark what with the cartridge format in a disc era.
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