Cool Boarders UEP

"Hey snow boarding is really hip, so like, let's do a game based on snow boarding."
"Great idea brother, let's get coding."

OK, so that's probably not how Cool Boarders was dreamed up, but you can imagine it happening. More likely it was a case of marketing man thinks: there's a lot of people who like the idea of snow boarding, but either aren't hip enough or don't have the money, so let's get some hacks to cobble together a game for the Playstation.

Having said that, Cool Boarders is no slacker. It's only got three tracks and makes itself look more complicated than it is by allowing the player to choose what type and colour of snowboard and clothing the virtual boarder uses. As if anyone cares. But the fact is, the game control is excellent and once you get it right, it makes for an elegant ride.

The game also strikes just the right balance of difficulty. If a game is too easy, it attracts casual gamers, but they get bored with it quickly and feel ripped off if they master it in a few hours. Easy games never get a look in with hardcore gamers: they get sniffy about anything which doesn't require the dexterity of concert pianist to control. But if a game is too hard, it sells only to the hardcores and never to casual gamers.

The secret, and Playstation games are particularly good at this, is to have an easy first level, to draw in the casuals and then much harder levels to get the hardcores and give the woossies something to aspire to.

Cool Boarders goes from an easy slope to a bloody difficult one to boarding down the vertical face of Canary Wharf with the windows open. After a couple of goes I looked pretty smooth on slope one, then spent half an hour of frustration eating icicles on slope two.

Slopes two and three can't be attempted without mastering a couple of the special moves to get around the hairpin turns, so it's worth practising them on the beginners' slope first.

At its heart, Cool Boarders is a racing game and thus shares the characteristics that all racers do. But it provides the useful feature of allowing you to race against your previous run. Eh? The computer records your previous run and plays it while you race against yourself. It gets a little confusing sometimes as to who you are actually controlling, but a quick change of kit solves that problem.

Check out Sony for more info on Sony Playstation Games.

Reviewed by Andrew Charlesworth