Reviewed: February 28, 2002
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
THQ
Developer
Radical Entertainment
Released: February 5, 2002
Genre: Sports
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen
8
8
6
7
8.0
Supported Features
My first Nintendo snowboarding experience was back in the late 90's with a game called, 1080 Snowboarding. Since then I have played countless snowboarding games on all of the available platforms. The Xbox launched with no less than three snowboarding titles, one of which was Dark Summit. Shortly thereafter this title made its appearance on the PlayStation 2 and now it arrives on the Nintendo GameCube.
Dark Summit breaks traditional snowboarding game rules by weaving a story into the various stages and levels in this game. The story leads you into completing quests and attaining goals to further the story and the game. Dark Summit has tricks, but it’s not a “trick game”. You race other snowboarders and try to outrun the rangers, but it’s not a “racing game”. This is the first and (so far) only “snowboard adventure” game that stresses story over mindless stunts and tricks.
It seems the military has mysteriously closed the summit of Mount Garrick, and the evil Chief O'Leary is trying desperately to drive boarders off the mountain. And don’t even try to go near the backside of the mountain. Sounds like an X-File, but since the FBI isn't around you will have to use Naya, the sexy redheaded snow surfer who is probably just a bit too curious for her own good. The suspense and intrigue unfold over the course of 45 mountain based challenges and missions.
Gameplay is built on progression. You start on the lower part of the mountain and by completing various challenges you can earn “lift points” that you can use to get to higher parts of the mountain. This concept alone is pretty darn cool and seems a bit more realistic than simply “unlocking” new courses.
You will also want to perform as many stunts and tricks as you can on the way down the mountain. There are plenty of jumps to get crazy air and even more rails, bars, beams, and other suitable ledges for jibs and grinds. Tricks earn you “equipment points” that you can then spend in the Equipment Hut to buy new boards and all sorts of cool new fashion accessories. If you are going to solve government conspiracies you need to look good while doing it.
The courses are huge, even when compared to SSX Tricky where the courses averaged around 2-5 minutes each. I was pleasantly surprised to find that even the starting runs on Dark Summit where huge, and they only get longer the further up the mountain you start. There are plenty of secrets and hidden shortcuts to learn; however, time is seldom an issue in Dark Summit. You aren’t actually racing, so finding these hidden paths generally leads to some hidden challenge, bonus trick, or a mission booth where you can get an assignment to earn those valuable lift points.
Missions and challenges are really creative and make good use of the environment and characters you would typically find on a mountain. Sometime you might be challenged to pull off seven 580’s on your way down the mountain. Other times you might have to find and defuse a series of bombs that have been planted around the mountain. One nice features is that if you fail a particular challenge you can simply restart the challenge without finishing the current run down the mountain. This saves a lot of time and frustration.
While you have your typical bag of tricks, Dark Summit adds some creativity by making you “find” the more advanced tricks. These appear as icons on the mountain and you cannot do these tricks until you have found and collected that icon. Only then is that trick added to your library. Since the tracks are as large as they are, finding these icons can often be quite difficult, but this only promotes exploration and adds to the overall length of the game.
I found the trick system quite confusing after having recently mastered SSX Tricky. But after about 3-5 hours I got the hang of it and was landing some serious tricks and grinding rails like a pro. My only complaint is that the buttons on the GameCube controller are a bit too close together to comfortably pull off some of the tricks. Even after hours of practice it just didn't feel natural, or at least as natural as it had on the other systems.
Controller issues aside, the trick system is almost too easy, utilizing single button presses for grinds, grabs, and half pipe handplants. You can tweak the grabs with the triggers and adjust your spin and balance with the directional stick. Naya can land just about any trick as long as her board is below her.
Everything in Dark Summit looks great upon first inspection. Unlike most snowboarding games where you fly down mountains of virginal white powder, Mount Garrick has a very sinister quality to it. It is very dark and the trees are all gnarled and almost evil looking. The sky is always overcast and the snow is often brown and dirty. There are some industrial areas with pools of toxic waste, electric fences, power lines, and other obstacles you simple don’t expect in a snowboarding game.
The characters look great with awesome textures and high quality animations. The tricks are totally exaggerated and lots of fun. Everything in the game is highly detailed and programmed with real life physics. I was stunned the first time I bumped into a snowman and it broke apart and started rolling down the mountain with its own agenda. You can smash through fences, grind on picnic tables, fallen girders or interact with just about any object on the mountain.
All of this detail has its price. There are some instances where the framerate is "less than smooth". This mainly occurs during collisions or on narrow parts of the course where there are lots of objects within the viewing range. You will also see the occasional pop-up of larger objects on the horizon. This becomes more apparent later in the game when you have new boards and are going down the mountain at faster speeds than when you first started. While it’s never enough to ruin the experience it is noticeable and often annoying, as it seems to happen during critical parts of the game.
There isn’t a lot of dialog in Dark Summit, but many of the characters do have a few lines that are often quite humorous. The voices all fit the characters and the radical punk-style of the genre. Even the authoritative voice of the ranger fits the game and will have you laughing.
The music slips comfortably into the background where it serves its purpose very well. There isn’t a huge variety in tunes, yet it never seems to get repetitive and it tends to blend with the action currently taking place on the screen. If things are getting tense for your rider then the music slips into something suitable.
The sound effects are as accurate as they are plentiful. From the hum of the electric fences to the gurgling of the green pools of toxic waste to the crunching of your board on freshly packed powder, the sounds totally add to the immersion of this snowboarding experience.
While the entire game takes place on only one mountain, the length, variety, and sheer number of tracks are tremendous. Each track has all sorts of hidden paths, alternate routes, and exploration secrets just waiting to be found.
During the course of the adventure you will have the opportunity to unlock five additional riders. These covert operatives each have their own unique personalities and characteristics, and they can then be used when you replay the game later. There are also plenty of tricks to find on the mountain as well as a huge wardrobe of snowboarding apparel and tons of high tech equipment upgrades including boards, bindings and gear you can buy in the Equipment Hut.
You will probably finish the main adventure in 10-12 hours. Things don’t really change when you replay using a new character, but even so, you will probably find yourself irresistibly compelled to return to Mount Garrick from time to time.
There is a split screen two-player mode that totally rocks. You can race on any tracks that you have previously unlocked in the adventure mode. Knowing the mountain and the locations of those secret shortcuts are crucial in winning these races. Suprisingly, there is very little slowdown in the framerate in the split-screen mode. It almost out-performs the solo game mode.
In addition to the standard racing mode there is also a Wrecking Ball mode where both players try to smash as many objects as they can on their way down the mountain. The person with the most wreckage at the bottom wins.
There is also a Half Pipe Battle mode where two players can compete in the half pipe by performing all sorts of radical stunts. The person with the most “trick points” at the end wins.
Radical has delivered a fun snowboarding game with a unique twist that is more than enough to set this game apart from the other snowboarding games currently available for the GameCube. The minimal learning curve and easiness of the controls and trick system make this a perfect game for the younger kids and those who don’t have the time or patience to learn all the intricate moves of the more advanced simulations.
For those of you who already own the Xbox or PS2 version of Dark Summit and are wondering how it compares. I found no discernable differences in the GameCube version, or any of the versions for that matter. They all look and play virtually identical to each other, so if you already own this game on another format there is no reason to get it again.