Snowboard Kids (Nintendo 64, 1998)

If you like racing games and would enjoy a little more than just sticking to the track the whole time, this game might be for you. Snowboard kids has all the elements of a traditional racing game - several tracks, different characters and boards to choose from - but instead of just competing against other players by speed and technique alone, you are able to pick up items along the course of each race and use them to slow down your opponent.
There are two different kinds of items you can aquire during the races. You can ride into a blue box and use items like the ghost, which slows down whoever is in first place; rocks, that trip people behind you; a fan, which makes you go faster than your opponent for a period of time; and my personal favorite, some kind of large flat splatter thing that flattens your opponent for a few seconds while you are able to whiz on by; among others.
If you ride into a pink box you can pick up different shooting devices. You shoot these at your opponent in front of you to slow them down. My favorite is the parachute shot, which hits your opponent and sends them into the air for awhile until they fall to the ground with the parachute. Others freeze your opponent, blow them up into a fireball, make them do a tumble, and there is even one that turns your opponent into a snowman for a period of time, denying them ability to control themselves and making them smash into walls or go off course.
All of the courses are cute and fantastic and so are the characters. Each course has its own music and each character has its own expressions that it says throughout the race. If you hit something or somebody or do a trick each character has its own things it says.
All the courses have jumps where you can do tricks to earn points. These points, along with the coins you can pick up during a race, allow you to "purchase" the items mentioned above and whatever is left you get to take with you to buy new models of boards. Each character does their own tricks by doing a combination of joystick moves while holding down the A button. You also get a certain amount of coin at the finish of a race for whatever place you get. First, second and third place all get cash prizes, but fourth place doesn't get any prizes and if you get fourth place you aren't allowed to keep any of your money you earned during the race.
Besides the races there are also trick games you can play, shot games, and speed games. For those who are crazy about racing, there are also timed races available where you can perfect your abilities and try to race for the best time.
This is one of my favorite games to play for its all around satisfaction. It is hard to get tired of playing it, unlike several other games. I highly recommend it and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

I love this game so much, and usually I'm not one for sports or racing games. I don't even like Mario kart very much. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's nostalgia talking, but this game is simply magical. It has great, fun courses and music that fits well with them. The characters are fun, the boards are nice. It's just a very good game, altogether.

The game has plenty of replay value. You get rewarded for every first place you get on a course and eventually can unlock new boards and courses. Also, every character and board combination is a different experience. For instance, putting Tommy, the fastest and hardest character to control, on the fastest board that's also difficult to control...that's a very different experience than putting Nancy, the slowest but easiest character to control on the fastest board. There's also a board you can unlock later in the game that is labeled as "useless" but it's very entertaining to try and master the controls on that board.

I definitely recommend this to everyone!

This game is relatively easy to master in single player mode, but the real enjoyment comes from multiplayer stages. Players collect coins to buy items on the various stages that allow them to attack (i.e. push over, not bloody/gory) his or her opponent during the race.

Really fun game more or less a racing game with a very original snowboarding twist. Unlike any other snowboarding game on this system much more cartoon and childish fun oriented. Able to shoot powerups at other boarders and also do easy tricks. Maps are very cartoonish and fun but an awesome game for a gamer of any age. Definitely essential to a collection and a very fun multiplayer.

The game is challenging, but you can learn to play after trial and error. Once you learn to play, it still maintains the challenge because each course gets harder and harder. It's great to play with friends. The only thing I dislike about it is like in many games, it splits the screen for each player, but if you have a small TV and it splits it into 4 sections (four players) it's annoying to say the least. Overall, 5 stars