In the early months of 2002, the 2nd party developer Left Field Productions began the work on a sequel to the acclaimed 1080° Snowboarding Nintendo 64 game. It was started as a SSX competitor, which maybe wasn't a good idea in Nintendo's viewpoint. That's maybe why it was handed over to Nintendo Software Technology from Seattle, who had previously worked on Wave Race: Blue Storm, a GameCube launch title. Now more improved than ever before, 1080°: White Storm was first shown amongst other GameCube exclusive titles at E3 2002 but a long silence from then on doubted whether the game was still in the development, now back in the limelight and newly renamed 1080°: Avalanche, things are looking good and the game has come on leaps and bounds in it's development.

Graphically, Avalanche is pretty sleek, with some really nice touches in general. Transparent rivers, clothes flowing in the wind, and glistening snow melting in the blazing sun to name just a few. The game can pull over waste slopes of snow, so you shouldn't be able to see anything slowly popping up in the background. You glide through forest, blank snow and rocky terrain, with generated rockslides and avalanches, which twists the gameplay from time to time. Overall, the game does run in thirty frames per second, and seems to focus more on subtle touches than the overall texture, which is a matter of taste, but some would maybe dismiss the graphics because of the lack of good textures.

As mentioned, Avalanche doesn't play like an arcade style snowboarder; it's more of a snowboarder simulator where the gameplay mechanics are based on the real thing. This means that your character won't be break dancing on his snowboard, tricks will be done the real way, and the general “feel” will be as it was the real world, with the nice graphical touches I mentioned above.

The controls will be as following: The control stick is for steering, and A is for jumping. The more you hold down A, the higher you'll jump. B and X are for doing tricks, and you can combine them with control stick movement for some really awesome results. Y and L is use for tucking and landing, and just as the first 1080° game, you have to press land before you hit the ground, unless you want to fall of your board flat on your face of course. About the new additions, 1080°: Avalanche will feature a balance meter, just as the ones found in today's skateboarding games. This balance meter will pop-up if you've done a trick in the air, or if you grind on a rail. To keep your balance you have to spin the control stick in 360° turns. In general, the gameplay seems to be very polished, and it should give every player a solid snowboard simulation experience.

Watch out for this game, it'll surely be among the best, if it won't be the best snowboarding game of 2003. Prepare for a worthy sequel and keep your eyes peeled for more info.