Players : 1 or 2
Chill Cool
Boarders series where snowboarding is the name of the game and speed is
of the essence.
Playing the Game
In-game Controls
Left/right : Steer your boarder left/right
Cross : Pressing Cross prepares your boarder to jump. The
longer it is held down, the bigger the jump performed when button is released.
Square : Boarder will tuck into a more aerodynamic position to allow
you to reach higher speeds.
Circle : Pressing this whilst steering will make you turn faster,
which is useful for sharp bends and avoiding obstacles.
Triangle : Pressing this causes you to twist your board in and out of
the Fakie position. If you're travelling in "the Fakie" position, a drop in
speed will be experienced and a double-arrow sign will appear on the left of
the screen.
Trick Controls
L1 & R1 : Press either of these while holding Cross to perform
left/right twists, and the longer these are held down, the faster the twist
will be.
Up/Down : Press either of these while holding Cross in
preparation for a jump and you will perform a front/back flip.
L2 : Press while boarder is airborne to perform a Mute grab
but you must release this before landing or risk "wiping out".
R2 : Press while boarder is airborne to perform a Method grab
but you must release this before landing or risk "wiping out".
Playing The Game
Chill is different from other snowboarding games, in that there is no
predefined route down the course. More often than not, the decision about
which route to take is left up to the player and the track will split several
times along its length to produce many possible routes. The key is to find the
fastest route taking advantage of any short cuts or steep, speed-boosting
sections.
There are five different courses to try: Winter Sports, Village, Forest,
Glacier and Free Ride .
Options
Several options are available :
Audio : Toggle Stereo/Mono sound, and alter the SFX and
Music volume.
Split Screen : Toggle the horizontal/vertical split in two-player
mode.
Ghost Rider : Toggling this on allows you to keep up with yourself
in one-player mode.
Controls : You can select from two different pre-set button
configurations and select analogue/digital control.
Load/Save : These options are also available for keeping track of
where you're up to.
Hints & Tips
As well as finding the fastest route down each track, a couple of extra moves
to aim for are :
Bonk : If the player lands on top of an object and bounces off it,
they will perform a bonk, which will also award many points. Look out for tree
stumps and the roofs of buildings which can be bonked.
Graphics, Sound and Playability
The graphics are basic and fairly blocky, and consist mostly of the same
objects approaching the player time and time again such as logs, chalets and
tree stumps. Even in the forest scene when the trees begin to fall over towards
you at regular intervals, what first appears to be a challenge proves fairly
easy as the collision detection is very poor making it easy to sail through
the top third of each tree without a hitch.
The sound is also fairly basic during the game, mostly consisting of the
sound of your snowboard against the snow as you head down the slope. A number
of uninspired tunes play in the background.
The playability is in question as well. Most of the time you let your character
drift down the slopes, helping him to meander to one side or another from time
to time and occasionally pulling off a trick jump or two when they actually
work, making the 'bonk's more a matter of luck than judgement.
Overall
Also, when it comes to the aspect of there being no predefined route down
the course, this comes across as meaning that whereas certain areas of the
course are fenced off, you can jump over the fences and into that area, but
you'll need to be able to get yourself out of there as well, and on each course
there's only one route most of the time which is down the slope. Halfway along
though this will split into two separate routes which is about as "no predefined
route" as it gets.
The U-bend section of the "Winter Sports" slope is also rather disappointing.
While you can perform one of four different trick-jumps when you fly into the
air, these are only achieved by pressing one of the top left/right buttons at
the correct moment, making it a rather mundane affair.
Overall this game is a mild diversion from the usual, but whatever speed your
character is appearing to belt down the slopes it doesn't feel like you're
going that fast. Add to that a two-player option that doesn't work well - the
horizontal screen-split impairs your performance by not being able to see what's
going on just above and below your line of vision; and the vertical split
restricts your view of items to your sides, making it difficult to judge
fast turns - and the end result is a game which sees you going through the
motions, not one that grabs the attention making you flinch at every twist and
turn like it should have done.
If you're after some more info on Eidos Interactive's games, you can check
out their official Website at
www.eidosinteractive.com
GRAPHICS : **
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC : **
PLAYABILITY : **
ORIGINALITY : **
ENJOYMENT : **
-------------------------------
OVERALL : **
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
