Supreme Snowboarding
| Supreme Snowboarding | |
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European box art
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| Developer(s) | Housemarque |
| Publisher(s) | Infogrames |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Supreme Snowboarding (known as Boarder Zone in the United States), is a snowboarding video game created by Housemarque for Microsoft Windows in 1999. It was one of the first snowboarding games for Windows to take full advantage of 3D graphics cards that were becoming the norm in the late 1990s, and eventually became an internationally bestselling game. Over 1.5 million units were sold worldwide, allowing Supreme Snowboarding to become the first hit title in Finnish game development. The game received positive critical reception, as well as acclaim for having one of the best visuals of its time, though its lack of content and replay value was sometimes criticized.
Housemarque's Supreme Snowboarding was the first Finnish game to be truly successful, and the first to sell over one million units. The game's core is built around three major game modes:
The controls of the game received praise, with players only using three other keys for jumps, tricks and carving snow, along with the directional keys. Players hit the jump key to initiate a trick, the trick key is used to perform such tricks, and the third button allows characters to turn faster by carving into the snow.
There are nine slalom and six trick courses, as well as six characters, each with their unique pros and cons. Each course features four types of weather and is divided into three types: Alpine, Village or Forest. There are also four snowboards, each designed to accommodate a different type of snowboarding. No internet multiplayer is offered though players can play with up to eight people over a wireless LAN network.
Supreme Snowboarding was often bundled with other products; for example, players obtained a copy of the game with their Kellogg's cereal. A cut version of the game, titled Flo-Boarding, was packaged into every N-Gage device in 2003, becoming the first game to be bundled together with the phone.
There were initial efforts by Sega of America to port "high-profile titles" including Supreme Snowboarding to the Dreamcast console, though, like many others, such efforts eventually failed due to the platform's uncertain profile with the impeding arrival of the PlayStation 2.
The game initially received critical acclaim upon release in Finland, with its graphics, speed and responsive controls being lauded. Reviewers praised the game for its realistic snowy environments and special effects, such as shadowing and weather. It was also commended as being easy to control and enjoyable to play, though criticism was leveled at the limited number of tracks and lack of content.
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