Cool Boarders 3 Review

Playstation, 1998

Although fun back in its day, Cool Boarders 3 is a classic snowboarding game that has not aged gracefully. Once the player chooses their boarder and board, they are given the selection of prime carving locations that pay homage to Japan, the Midwest United States and Eastern European slopes and must meet requirements such as dodging an avalanche or racking up as many points as possible in a halfpipe.

Home is Just Over that Mountain

Cool Boarders 3 boasts a great variety of features, although they all share the same goals: make it down a mountain in as fast a time as possible, or squeeze as many tricks as one can into a single run. In single player mode, the challenges are just that--challenging--but once you learn the ropes of how to do the tricks and do them in rapid succession, the formula gets stale. Unlockables include new courses, new boards and new characters--although the vast majority of the characters are already available at the start of the game.

PROTIP: At the end of the run on Devil's Butt, be sure to grind the rail to the far left of the slope--otherwise you need to time the jump PERFECTLY to make it above the painful rocks.

Stereo to H-E-Double Hockey Stick

Being a snowboarder game with snowboarder-appropriate music, the soundtrack is reminiscent of the music played at local surf or skate shops--until the same three songs are played again and again and again. Tunes that are catchy at first quickly turn into an irritating conundrum of the same flat guitar chords and wah-wah distortion played at every screen, stage and slope. In comparison to rockin' soundtracks like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or even fighting games, the muddy and flat rock music doesn't compete.

On top of this, irritating menu noises (how many times can a person stand the sound of a "swoop") and EXTREMELY repetitive character noises give the player a headache long before the competition starts. It is quite irksome how a 13-year old boy snowboarder makes the same sound as a twenty-something girl when they fall on their butts or get punched in the face. The best sounds in the whole game are found in the company logo introductions--9-8-9 Studios' introduction sounds as if Fox Sports West produced it, and Bob and Larry in the Basement produced the rest of the sounds in the game.

Before Shaun White, There Was...Pixels

Although the controls are simple, they feel rather stiff in comparison to other extreme sport games. It's great how a player gets a sense of speed when carving the slopes at 65 MPH, but try making a turn or landing a railslide on a downed tree, and it takes a bit of time to master such a feat. The combat mechanics are also quite clunky and unnecessary--the hitbox is completely inaccurate and sometimes a character will fall down for no apparent reason and suddenly realize that they were punched 3 seconds ago. All the same, they do their job--as do the graphics of the game.

Crisp, clear powder is laid before the player as far as the eye can see--but no matter what stage they're boarding on, the same rocks, trees and pixelated powder plague every screen. The character models are also quite blocky, suffer from the typical Playstation "jaggies" and have little variance in them. The only truly outstanding character is Fast Eddy--a boarder who dons a motocross helmet and goggles, and maybe Joker--a guy whose ridiculous mohawk is, well...a joke. The remainder of the characters are unappealing characters who look more like they belong in a fashion show than a snowboarding competition. Also unappealing is the score, text and MPH indicator in the game--other extreme sport games and even NFL MADDEN games have a tendency to use appropriate, but appealing, in-game text. This game does not--it uses a cheap number and text display system that can be found in a cheap digital wristwatch.

As you can see, the ho-hum graphics are rife with pixelation...

They call it "Half Pipe" For A Reason...

Cool Boarders 3 was a game I had no problems with back in it's heyday, when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was still NEW, and extreme games were few and far between. When given another snowboarding game a few years later (MTV Snowboarding to be exact), it paled in comparison to the fun I had with Cool Boarders 3. But now, with the myriad of Tony Hawk games and the realization that snowboarding is an immensely slower sport than skiing, this is a game that hasn't aged gracefully. The perfect candidate for a rental or reminiscing, but no more.

Graphics: 3.0

Crisp visuals, but blocky environments, pixelated powder and "jaggy" character models hurt the score big-time.

Sound: 3.0

Tame rock music plays continuously throughout the entire game, giving the correct mood...until one realizes that they've heard the same, and flat, muddy riff five times before the run is complete.

Control: 4.0

Good, but not great. The simplicity of downhill boarding is fine, but try doing a trick or landing a jump and the controls start to get picky.

Fun Factor: 4.0

A fun game for a while, especially in multiplayer mode with a friend, but once the clunky combat and irritating course requirements knock your character on their ass multiple times--it gets as old as the outdated graphics.

*All image sources are from GameFAQs.com