Developer: Vicarious Visions Publisher: Vatical Entertainment
Released: December 27, 2000 Rated: E 3/10
It’s very common in the gaming industry for young development houses to have to “pay their dues,” so to speak. Opening a studio is hard enough in a cutthroat industry where one slip up can sometimes upset the entire viability of your company, whereas consistently praised and moderately successful work doesn’t translate to freedom to work on your passion projects. Taking a look at some highly regarded developers of today, such as WayForward, pulls up a lengthy list of titles we would call “shovelware,” with their original project Shantae buried somewhere in there, while everything else kept the lights on. Vicarious Visions, nowadays known as Blizzard Albany, and all things considered, a pretty respectable company, has a similar resume, with one of their earliest efforts being Polaris SnoCross, an officially licensed title from what I assume is one of the world’s more notable snowmobile manufacturers.
While I often like to dive into the wider context of a game for my introductions, my motivations for doing so today, without ending on much of a thesis, are a bit different. Because Polaris SnoCross is a nothing game. One of the few titles on the N64 I would go so far as to say is “shovelware,” we’ve largely avoided such a descriptor for most of our previous 275 or so titles because the N64 doesn’t offer a lot of quick moneymaking opportunities. This is probably allayed to some degree with a GameBoy Color, PS1, and eventually, PC release to get the most sales, but nonetheless, when a game like this comes up on the N64, it’s a bit surprising, as even with plenty of bad games, the library has often earned the benefit of the doubt as to each game’s integrity. Polaris SnoCross has none of that such integrity, and it’s obvious almost immediately.
It’s an okay-looking game, I suppose. There’s a good amount of detail on the riders and, of course, the featured snowmobiles, and the animation of the riders is decent as well. Lots of pop-in, though, with that pesky N64 draw distance making races tough on your first run. The tracks are otherwise short and easy to learn, including their shortcuts, which makes the primary difficulty come from your AI opponents and the physics. Though the field in each race is small, they put up a fight trying to squeeze through tighter passages or jockey for position off of jumps. There are tricks that can be performed if you manage to catch enough air, which will allow you to boost your stats between races in championship mode, but they’re extremely tough to pull off in any context. You can barely get enough air and landing areas are tough to catch right because they’re uneven. It would be a big part of the challenge if the controls had any complexity to learn, but it’s clearly something just thrown in there even though it’s not like Polaris SnoCross is a full-on arcade experience like Arctic Thunder or Sled Storm. Really, it reminds me more of what Sony would do with ATV Offroad Fury on the PS2, except that series still had a lot of depth and showed off its hardware very well.
Even as a small part of the overall package, I don’t think anything really exemplifies the cheapness of Polaris SnoCross like the sound design. The handful of music tracks are this simple little drum and bass bits that loop after about eight seconds and become tiresome almost immediately. LIke everything else in the game, it’s the bare minimum to get a product out and not worth your time. Really, I don’t have much more to say other than that I’m grateful for Vicarious Visions getting to stick around all these years. They can do a lot better than this.
Continuing Legacy
Snowmobiles aren’t often the preferred method of transportation in games, and of the few times they have been featured, most of those times have been more shovelware games, including on more successful consoles like the Wii, PS2, and Switch. EA’s Sled Storm and Midway’s Arctic Thunder have been enjoyable, very arcade-style titles, but haven’t leaned particularly hard on the mechanics of their chosen vehicle so much as chosen to utilize the snowy aesthetic.
Additional Information
Saves: Controller Pak
Compatible With: Rumble Pak
Players: 1-4
Print Guides: None
Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 50.17%, based on 6 reviews
Other Releases: NA Exclusive on N64
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