Snowboard Kids

The most important part of any racing game are the courses that you race on, and Snowboard Kids excels in this area! All the courses contain their share of wicked jumps and hidden passages, but perhaps the greatest part of them is the shear variety in the courses. There is your standard snow course, but Snowboard Kids includes races that can take place at night, on wood, on pavement and even on grass! Not the most realistic game out there, but lots of fun for kids.

The control takes a little bit of getting used to. It is nearly impossible to control characters like Tommy and Linda, because their turning is so slow that you end up knocking into the sides all the time. All of the characters are well balanced from characters like Nancy (who handles well but has no speed) to characters like Tommy (who go very fast, but handles horribly). The tricks in Snowboard Kids are all fairly easy to pull off - none of the tricks are eye popping like ones you would find in Cool Boarders or 1080 Snowboarding, but they are welcome additions to what would otherwise be, fairly dull gameplay. There are a variety of different modes of play in Snowboard Kids, but 4 Player Battle is by far the best. Each player picks their character and then you race to the bottom of the hill, the whole time picking up weapons (a la Mario Kart) to slow down your opponent and get to the bottom of the hill fastest. Once you reach the bottom you have to race into the chairlift and head up to the top until you have completed the amount of laps assigned.

The variety in weapons and special items thrown into the game add to the excitement level and overall gaming experience. Multiplayer Snowboard Kids is no match to Diddy Kong, but it still provides a solid gaming experience with some half-decent concepts.