Cool Boarders helped kick off Hamster’s new Console Archives initiative and it was definitely an interesting choice. Formerly a PlayStation exclusive, it does feel a bit strange to have this title available on the Nintendo Switch 2. Given the trajectory of Console Archives, this won’t be the last time either. Regardless, is this retro snowboarding title worth taking a look at all of these years later? Let’s get into it.
Gameplay & Modes
Cool Boarders is a very straight forward downhill snowboard racing game with an arcade-like feel. The game contains three tracks (with two unlockable), a male or female racer (with four different outfits) and multiple boards to choose from. The main goal in each course is reaching the top of the rankings while clearing timed check points along the way. Once cleared, you will be evaluated on three parameters - time, total tricks, and overall point total. While I think the first two of these are relatively self explanatory, the overall point total takes into account your time, tricks and (I believe) whether or not your wiped out during your run. The name of the game here is repetition. The more you play, the more familiar you become with the courses. The more familiar you are with them, the better (theoretically) you’ll do. You can see the fruits of your labor via a set of up to three trophies outside of the course select after you obtain them. Additional boards, courses and a boarder are available to unlock for dedicated players.
Cool Boarders is a single player affair, so those looking to shred the peaks with their buddies are out of luck. You can, however, save and race against your best performances with ghost data which will hit the slopes alongside you. This is cool to see at first, but when you’re trying to focus on getting high scores or faster times, these can get in the way. Unless I missed something, there is no way to turn these off once you have them turned on.
Controls in Cool Boarders are easy enough to wrap your head around, but can be a little bit touchy. You can jump with B, drift with Y, switch to a first person view with X and perform grabs in the air with R. General movement feels pretty good, but it really depends on the board that you use and how used to the tracks you are. Still, early on you will likely find yourself being ping ponged around the stages a bit as even slight mistakes will grind your run to a standstill. It mostly seems fair, but sometimes you’ll find that narrow areas that seem passable aren’t. Patience and familiarity are key.
Jumps and tricks can be a bit…tricky. Unlike other snowboarding games that I have played, points for tricks will only be awarded at certain points in the stages. These are usually indicated visually with blue flags or by the announcer telling you that one is coming up. This makes getting the most out of your jumps paramount on your runs. Holding down the jump button and directions on the d-pad or joystick will help you get spin once you release the button. The jump will need to be initiated on your lead up to the specific area if you want maximum height and spin. Again, it’s all about timing. Having a jump with spins and making use of the grabs with R are needed if you want to high enough scores to make progress in the game.
Console Archives Features
Just as with titles released under Hamster’s Arcade Archives series of games, there are some useful additions made here. By pressing in the right stick, you will bring up the Console Archive menu which lets you save and load games, check out a modern manual for the game, go through a variety of screen filters and much more. There are no online leaderboards or anything like what was in Arcade Archive titles, which may disappoint some. Additionally, a rewind feature is also not available. Sure, you can get a similar result by making very liberal use of save states, but an honest to god rewind would have been convenient. Even with that said, what is on offer is pretty solid.
Visuals, Audio & Presentation
This Console Archives version of Cool Boarders retains the original 32-bit PlayStation look, warts and all. Textures can be a bit blurry at times, and the character models are chunky and polygonal. Even with that said, while Cool Boarders is quite an early PS1 title, I was still impressed by the overall speed of the game and other small details, like snow kicking up behind the boarder racing down the courses. One issue that you will notice with the visuals are the “seams” that are evident throughout the courses. This makes it so you can see where parts of the course are pieced together, which is a bit off-putting at first. This was something that some reviews also panned back in the day (such as the IGN review). Again, being an early PS1 title, I can forgive this.
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| You can see the "seams" on the left side of the picture. |
Cool Boarders features a handful of music tracks that fit the sport and era perfectly. There is even a music player that can be accessed from the options menu if you want to listen to the tracks at your leisure. My only complaint about the sound is the constant chirping from the announcer. This doesn’t just happen while you’re playing the game, but also in menus. At the time this might have been a bit funny, but more times than not, I found myself just wanting to turn him off, which thankfully, you can do.
Overall, despite the rough look of the game, things here run pretty smoothly, right around 60 frames per second, which is way more important. I can’t think of any instances during my time with the game where stutters or dips in the framerate came up.
Conclusion
Despite coming across as negative, I’ve enjoyed my time with Cool Boarders. It’s a fun game but it just lacks depth. With only a small number of courses and unlocks available, dedicated (and skilled) gamers can breeze through the game in an afternoon. The visuals are a bit messy and controls can be on the touchy side. If you’re willing to put in the time and deal with a little bit of frustration, you can find enjoyment out of this one. I’d recommend this one for those looking for a nostalgia trip.
But let’s turn things over to you guys. Did you play Cool Boarders back in the day? Are you planning on picking up the game on PS5 or Switch 2? What’s your favorite snowboarding title from that console generation. For me, hands down, it’s 1080 on the N64. Be sure to sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear from you!
Final Score: 6.0
by Danny Bivens
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