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1080 started on the N64 and with the new GameCube came a sequel taking full advantage of the new hardware's features with additions such as LAN play, progressive scan 480p and Dolby Pro Logic 2. . A special edition of the game was released to select retailers that contained a bonus disc. The disc contained a mini DVD containing "Snowboard Cottage," a 30-minute video of extreme snow sports mixed with music from the game. Unfortunately, the 30-minute movie does not play on the GameCube but rather only on standard DVD players. The game is a downhill racer where there are no laps—just racers, who start at the top of the mountain and finish at the bottom. During the races, you can fill up your power meter to help you knock opponents off their board or recover from falls faster. There are 15 courses to play, all of which are relatively short but well-designed. The player has a health bar, and if he/she falls or crashes too many times, the player loses a life and be disqualified. As the name implies, avalanches happen during some races—either at the start or in the middle—and the player must finish the race as quickly as possible to avoid them. The game offers a few other modes, such as Time Trial, Gate challenge, and Trick attack. Although multiplayer modes exist, they drop the frame rate drastically.

Development was originally started by Left Field Productions who was a 2nd party developer for Nintendo That made games such as The NBA courtside series, Excitebike 64, and a few pinball titles for the Game Boy Color. Due to the company wanting to branch out development didn't get far before the company stopped development and revoked their 2nd party status to work on more games for more consoles. Even with this there was strife before leaving as Left Field wanted to make a simulation-based game while Nintendo wanted ta more extreme sports feel like SSX. Productions then shifted to Nintendo Software Technology who had previously made Wave Race: Blue Storm a success on the console. I was able to talk to Henry Sterchi, the Product Coordinator for the game, and learn more about the development and what he was able to put into it. Henry has been

•You are credited on the game as being Product Coordination, What did you contribute to this game?

I played the builds for quality control and helped with communication between the teams.

•The game was said to be originally developed by Leftfield until they decided to leave as being a 2nd party developer. Is this true and what happened to bring the game back into NST taking over?

We had some internal shuffling at that point, so while I was the main NOA person that brought Left Field in (for NBA Courtside and Excitebike 64) and it was decided to separate into Nintendo Sports which I wasn't a part of because I was finishing Eternal Darkness and Excitebike.

Left Field did indeed start work on a 1080 gameMy understanding was the team at Left Field wanted a simulation feel, similar to the original 1080. NOA was enamored with more extreme sports at the time and rhetoric edginess of SSX and wanted a more trick heavy game. I really don't know when or how the break happened, but with NST's expertise with Wave Race, 1080 Avalanche was a logical fit after the split.

•The game was one of the few to incorporate LAN play, whose idea was it to include this feature? Have you been able to play this with the dev team or on your own?

We had tested it a few times, but honestly LAN play in console ended up being so niche, that supporting it forward wasn't cost or time effective.

•Were you able to put any of your ideas into the game?

Not for 1080, I was mainly there to help quality control. A coordinator that worked on my team did most of the work on 1080 as I was managing several other games at that time.

•Shigeru Miyamoto was a producer on the game, were you able to meet him and work with him on any aspect?

I met Miyamoto-San many times, but most of his feedback for 1080 was written or conference call correspondence. I'm not sure I've ever met anyone in the industry like him, after demoing Mario 64 at E3 Miyamoto-San was so happy with it he sent me all over the country to demo it. It was at this point that he explained to me the purpose of the castle starting point.

•Was there anything you still wanted to add in that you didn't get a chance to? Or even take out?

I thought the game needed more replay and suggested a cup or circuit mode similar to Mario Kart. I felt some of the controls were a bit sluggish and they should have tweened the animation timing faster.

•What are your honest thoughts on the final product?

I liked it, the Avalanche stuff was a highlight for me. Ultimately, I enjoyed the original better and felt like it was caught between the time and precision based gameplay of the original and the extreme Avalanche stuff.

While some prefer the SSX series for its trick system 1080 Avalanche was unique in its presentation between the Avalanches, unique characters, Dolby Pro logic 2 sound, unlockable including the NES controller themed board; complete with NES sound effects. The LAN feature makes it one of the ultimate event games being able to hook up 4 consoles together. The sound track uses many popular artists from the time with a total of 38 songs.