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"THIS GAME LACKS AN ESPN2 LICENSE"

Kudos to Sega of America for snapping out of their comatose localization process, and bringing in quick fashion this Victor Interactive/Cave Japanese title to American shores. Looking just as bad and rushed as the PlayStation "Cool Boarders" game (and catering to the same "extreme" audience that made those games hits), "Steep Slope Sliders" goes the extra mile in making its soundtrack unique, its gameplay addictive and its lack of a Two-player option an afterthought. Besides, what other snowboarding game is available for the Sega Saturn (unless you import the Japanese game "Zap!")? At least "SSS" (and the upcoming "Winter Heat") was a tasty handout for hungry Saturn owners that suffered through a depressing Christmas in 1997.

There are about six or seven courses (I forget), and four standard characters to choose from; the objective is to simply finish each course in as timely a fashion as humanly possible, and to perform as many jumps/tricks/stunts as possible to accumulate valuable points. Finish with a record-breaking course and point total, and hidden goodies start popping out left and right: hidden courses, hidden characters, hidden games (including a "Death Tank"-looking lackey game that is like a homage-of-sorts to old 2600 games). But what seals the deal for me, and makes me recommend you grab a copy of this game (if you can find it) as soon as possible is that (a) it is fun and addictive as hell despite shortcomings. And (b) it is SO CHEAP; you can find copies at Best Buy and Target for as little as $10 if you're lucky. Compare that for the monster $60 price tag of the upcoming avalanche of N64 snowboarding games. It's a no-brainer!

GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B
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The game lacks a split-screen Two-player option, which limits the fun factor somewhat and makes the game lose some points when compared to the "Cool Boarders" series. And the resolution and overall presentation doesn't push the graphical limits of the machine: the all-polygon environment lacks detail and looks like a snow course after it rained for weeks (if you've ever seen wet sluggy snow, you know what I'm talking about). And those houses and trees couldn't look more fake and cardboard-like, even if the programmers of "Tomb Raider" tried to emulate their flatness (ouch!). The characters don't fare much better: the polygon count is rather low, and they look like stick figures with some clothes wrapped around it. I don't expect any good-looking Saturn games from anyone but the internal Sega teams, and Cave lives up to the average third-party expectation. The programmers can't even implement their daytime and nighttime feature right, since there is no light-sourcing implemented which renders playing the game at night (in the game, not in real life :-) the equivalent of riding a bike in a dark alley. There is not a bright color in sight during the stunt-filled extravaganza that is "SSS".

But although there are many strikes against the graphics of "SSS", the game does one thing very right: it has an exceptional frame-rate and very few instances of slowdown. The feeling of cruising through a course filled with rocks, obstacles, houses and bumps on the road is exceptional; your reaction time determines how will your on-screen alter ego lands and gains speed, which in turn feels and looks like an event you'd see on ESPN2 at 2:00AM on your average weeknight (when summer louge and tree-cutting contests are on hiatus). You can save your best races on up to six slots in the Memory Cartridge (which take up to 50 units each), and edit them to your heart's content: camera angle, tint, special effects, slow-motion, etc. It is like giving the average Saturn gamer a chance to play a remote-truck TV director and coming up with a highlight reel for the 11:00 O'clock news (I'd like to see this featue added to future sports games; can you imagine editing your own football or basketball highlights? That'd be so cool!). Take it from someone who edits TV shows for a living: "SSS" has one of the best replay features in the business, hands down.

MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B
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The game lacks sound effects, with just the odd "bump" when hitting another object or the sliding sound of your board as it cuts across the snow. The announcer doesn't speak much, but he sounds "extreme" indeed; the characters don't say anything (not even a yell), which is fine by me if it means they won't be spewing idiotic Generation-X babble ("Courier Crisis" anyone?). The music is a different story, with a mix of different musical styles like grunge, techno and even love songs (with lyrics..."hold me cloooooser") that can be selected BEFORE THE RACE, a feature that is sadly lacking in many games that really needed it to spice variety ("Sonic R", "Mario Kart 64"). I'm not impressed by the music, but it is not a tragedy the way your average N64 music is ("San Francisco Rush" anyone?). The programmers at Victor Interactive/Cave even included a light-show which displays weird trippy visuals that react to the "SSS" tunes, but apparently they aren't impressed by their musical composers, and have mercifully given the players an option to play in silence. Exercise your rights, if you so desire!

GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: B+
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Ever wanted to engage in playing the latest craze in Winter sports without breaking your bones, or pulling a Sonny Bono or a Michael Kennedy? Then "SSS" is the safest ticket through the land of extreme stunts and world-setting records, and you can only travel there via Saturn airlines. Even though the game doesn't support the analog controller (a startling omission), the control of the characters is decent: you move them via the regular D-pad, or twist their angle via the L and R shift buttons. There are buttons for jumping, flipping horizontally and flipping vertically, and they can be combined with the regular D-pad for some extreme stunts when enough speed and air is achieved. It all may sound confusing, but after a half-hour of practice I was pulling some sweet-looking stunts on the Half-Pipe course. And I suck at playing even the easiest game!

The lack of a split-screen Two-player option is somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Since the player doesn't have to worry about head-to-head competition, the concentration is solely placed on the course, the obstacles, the stunts and the timer...just like the real sport! A player can give the course a try while others watch (this is one of the few One-player games where people watching the game can have as much fun as the guy/gal playing it, since the presentation is so reminiscent of what the sport looks like on TV), and then another player could try to outscore either the stunt points, the time record, or both. The hidden goodies are nice, the music is nice and the gameplay is taken care of; the graphics could have been better and have more polish but, just like Sega's own "Touring Car Championship", the sacrifices in the eye-candy department are made-up with OK speed and acceptable control. The physics of the game are adequate and feel, within the realms of videogames, more realistic than the already-famous bug from "Cool Boarders", the "bump-like-a-pinball-from-tree-to-tree" routine. Now let's see what Cave can do with RPG's (their next Saturn game falls into that genre).

OVERALL: B+
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The sleeper hit of the Christmas season (along with "Enemy Zero", "Mischief Makers", "Monster Rancher" and "Treasures of the Deep"), "Steep Slope Sliders" is a nice addition to the rapidly-fading list of Saturn exclusives coming to America, and the only snowboarding game for the system. It is an addictive One-player trip through a cardboard-like environment, and an entertaining distraction to veterans of the sport or newbies to the genre which, until now, was dominated by the PSX "Cool Boarders" series. Be warned though, if you're a graphics-nut and are a multi-system owner: when the N64 snowboarding games hit the market, "SSS" and "CB" will instantly become those game's bitches of choice. But on Saturn, there is no substitute.

It's a shame that "SSS" came out just as the Saturn fell from grace among most casual gamers, but maybe people will give it a second thought now that the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics are all the rage. I can see the print ad: "This game was endorsed by Canada's Snowboarding Gold Winner Ross Rebagliati". Ross' quote on the ad (with the voice of Keanu Reeves in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure"): "I could have bought a whole lot of Cheetos, but instead I accepted money from Sega for endorsing the Sega Saturn. Now I have a new videogame system AND money to buy as many Cheetos AND Doritos as I want. Now you tell me who's on drugs. SEGA!!!" The way things are going for poor SOA, the ad will be co-sponsored by the Ad Council's Partnership for a Drug Free America.

NeXT!!!