Developer: Imagineer Publisher: SouthPeak Interactive/Xicat Interactive

Released: October 10, 2000 Rated: E 4/10

It’s not often that you come across a game that feels like an also-ran in the N64 library, though it’s almost exclusively a label you’d put on games involving some manner of racing title. But even in the much slimmer subgenre of snowboarding, which is still well-represented on the system, Big Mountain 2000, originally released in Japan two years prior as “Snow Speeder,” feels like a cheap copy of multiple titles. Not only does the classic 1080 Snowboarding from early 1998 naturally dwarf Big Mountain in flair, control, and mechanics, but even the oft-maligned Twisted Edge: Extreme Snowboarding has at least a smidge more depth and attitude.

The biggest issues with Big Mountain 2000 don’t even necessarily have to do with it being some awful, mushy-controlling, unintuitive, backwards mess of an experience. In fact, all you can really say about the controls is that they’re too simple. Using the control stick to steer and speed up, B to jump, and A to brake yourself, there’s not so much a touch to the controls as a slow progression of having to pull up less and less to avoid wiping out, whether it be from over-accelerating or going too fast while cornering. There’s a very basic attribute/experience system that accounts for speed, cornering, and “cool” of each character and their gear, and there’s an in-game stamina meter that will make it take longer to get up after a wipeout. And well, that’s about all there is.

Calling Big Mountain 2000 an “arcade-style” racer might be a little generous – I think largely what we have here is an undercooked budget title. It’s inoffensive but lacking in just about everything, even the aspects it has a chance to stand apart with if it had been developed that way. Having skiing on tap as well as snowboarding would be an intriguing way to pack in a little two-in-one action for some variety. That is, if there was any difference whatsoever in how they played. It could make a splash visually if it leaned into the cartoony style in its cover art or its character portraits, but during gameplay, it’s just plain models without even much polygon count. It could try mixing up game modes, like ones that give you a reason to do tricks that are seemingly in the game just because they’re in other snowboarding titles, but it only offers two forms of slalom, free race, and a time attack mode. And even with a few decent flashes of nice design work, like the characters looking decent on the select screen, and some solid track layouts with multiple routes, but only six characters and four stages is just not enough for a game so shallow on all fronts.

It’s no question that Big Mountain 2000 never needed to hit the market in the first place, let alone be localized to the West so near the end of the N64’s life. No gimmicks, no flavor, no risks taken, it’s too simple to be unplayable, because it’s too simple to truly fail. If you ever were to come across it (to the surprise of few, it’s a rather uncommon title in its US release now), take your money and buy a copy of 1080 and a copy of Snowboard Kids. And hell, you might even be able to snag a copy of MRC with your change – it’s got about as much content and at least some level of mechanical complexity, even if you don’t get to carve up the slopes in it.

Continuing Legacy

If you want a decent game with snowboarding in it, there are dozens, from Coolboarders to SSX to Amped – it’s a heavily explored genre. If you want good skiing, well, it would be a long time before anything good came along for that, but 2016’s Steep is a solid title featuring multiple types of winter sports, it’s just a shame it leans so heavily on online play that it’s that much harder to play and enjoy even though it received quite a bit of content over the years.

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