Supreme Snowboarding

Boarder Zone/Supreme Snowboarding is a game created by Housemarque for Microsoft Windows in 2000. A CD is needed for the game to be installed and played on a computer. When the game is started up, music starts playing and it displays a menu with a list of options which are: Arcade, Championship, One Event Exhibition, Practice, Network Race, Hall Of Fame, Options and Quit.

Arcade Mode

In Arcade mode you are able to race time or the computer or do tricks on the pipe and in the air. There are six characters to choose from: Keith Clint, Akiko Kurosana, Mike Coote, Vincent Reno, Ulrika Renquith and Karl Yuume. Each character has their own clothing and grunts when they fall over or are pushing themselves along. Plus when you are choosing, each of them have a unique description about who they are. There are a number of music tracks you can listen to while racing supposedly composed by KBP which are: I'm On TV, Grind, Reality Bites, Shred Yo' Booty Baby, Hell's Sinking, Technik, Out Of My Mynd, Fast Song and Check This Shit Out. All the songs are of the rock genre and some may be classed as hard rock.

When racing the time or the computerized players there are options to change the time of day and weather. You can race on a sunny day, a snowy day, sunrise or nighttime. There are 9 maps to choose from: 3 village maps, 3 forest maps and 3 alpine maps. Each theme has an easy, medium and hard map which are playable but the hard maps aren't unlocked when you first play the game. At the end of the race, the scoreboard appears with your time and the other players' time along with a replay of your run on the track.

When doing tricks on the pipe or in the air, a commentator introduces your player when you start by saying "Welcome to the half-pipe/air competition. Next stop is (player name)!". When tricks are performed, the commentator will say out loud exactly what trick you've performed or if you fall over. At the end of the pipe or air, the commentator will either make a positive or negative comment based on your performance. A scoreboard then appears which shows where you've come out of all the times you have played it.

Championship Mode

In Championship mode you are able to compete against computerized players to go up clubs. Firstly you can qualify for the upcoming race by either doing tricks on the pipe, in the air or racing against time. You can skip the qualifier but that puts you in 6th position for the actual race. The position you come in the qualifier depends on where you start in the real race. For example if you came 5th in the qualifier, you would be the 5th one to go in the real race. One championship is made up of 3 races and your place on the leader board is determined by what position you come in each race. The person who comes first gains the most points and the person in last doesn't gain any points. The top 3 people move up a club, the next 6 stay in the same club and the last 3 go down a club.

One Event Exhibition Mode

In One Event Exhibition mode you are able to compete with computerized players on the pipe or in the air doing tricks. The layout and how the ranking system works is identical to the Championship mode. There are 3 different events that make up the One Event Exhibition. There is no qualifier in this mode.

Practice Mode

In Practice mode you are able to play as one of the six characters mentioned above along with the board of your choice. You are also able to change the weather and enable a guide rider which is a shadowed snowboarder dressed in orange and wearing what looks like a beanie hat that shows you where to go.There is only one practice track and you cannot choose it in Arcade mode or any other mode. In the track , there are a lot of hills to jump and practice tricks.

Network Race Mode

In Network Race Mode you are able to race against other players across the world who are also playing the game. You can set up a server for other players to join when they are searching for a server. When the game was released it was a popular mode but nowadays it is unknown whether people are still active on this mode and it is likely that it is inactive.

Hall Of Fame

In the Hall Of Fame you are able to see who has achieved the fastest time on each map and also to see who scored the most on the half-pipe and the air mode. You click on the map and press the arrow and it shows you the scoreboard. There is also the option to access the Credits on this mode which tells you the lead programmer of the game (Jani Penttinen) and more.

Options

In Options you can change the graphics of the game from Low to Very High along with a custom option where you can configure the graphics to your preference. There is also a Sound option in which you can turn the music and sound volume up, down or off and there is a Controls option as well where you can change the controls on the keyboard or connect a joystick to race. The default controls for the keyboard are:

Quit

The Quit button is pretty self-explanatory, when clicked a pop-up appears which says "Are you sure?" and there are two possible options Yes or No. "Yes!" takes you out of the game while "No!" keeps you in the game.

Trivia

• You can't change the weather in Championship or One Event Exhibition Mode.
• Keith's last name "Clint" can be mistaken for "Flint" as the commentator is unclear when he says it. He is based upon Keith Flint, member of British electronic music group The Prodigy.
• Mike and Keith are the only two characters that don't perform any actions on the choosing screen.

References

• http://www.housemarque.com/games/supreme-snowboarding/