Snowboard Kids

Snowboard Kids, also called in Japan Snobow Kids (スノボキッズ), is a snowboarding video game for the Nintendo 64. It was developed by Racdym and published by Atlus. The game features 10-year-old children who snowboard down various courses, not necessarily involving snow. Many reviewers compared its style to that of the Mario Kart series.

Plot
The kids are arguing about their snowboarding skills. The debate escalates to the point where they decide to hold a snowboarding tournament to determine who is the best. One character, Shinobin, has no involvement whatsoever until it is unlocked by the player

Characters
The characters in the game are designed in a chibi style, with big heads and small bodies. It has been suggested that the game became a cult classic because of these character designs, whose chibi style and very large noses broke most other trends of game character design.

Slash Kamei
Age 10, male

Slash is technically the most balanced character in the game and as such is good for beginners. He has long, black spiky hair and wears yellow and blue goggles. He's well suited for use with a Level 2 or 3 All Around board. Slash is automatically selected as the character used at the training mode, and in the shot and item demos. According to the background material, he considers himself to be the fastest in the village. He has too much energy for his own good and is always fighting with Linda.
 * Speed-2
 * Turn-2
 * Tricks-2

Nancy Neil
Age 10, female

Nancy is the slowest character on the course, but has a very good set of tricks. Players who favour using tricks to gain money may be suited to her. She's at her best when paired with a Level 3 All Around board. Nancy wears pink clothes, has rabbit-style ears, a purple bow on her back and hearts painted on her face. According to the background material for the game, she regards herself as being very modest, and never brags about her skills, even though she is easily the best at performing tricks.
 * Speed-1
 * Turn-3
 * Tricks-3

Jam Kuehnemund
Age 10, male

Jam is often considered the best of the initially-available characters in the game for his notable handling and tricks, although he is one of the slowest characters. Distinguished by his brown dreadlocks, he also wears blue goggles and a white and purple striped beanie. The background materials tell us that Jam follows the New York Rap Scene and refuses to believe that Nancy is better at tricks than he is, so he desperately wants to beat her.
 * Speed-1½
 * Turn-2½
 * Tricks-2½

Linda Maltinie
Age 11, female

Linda is one of the fastest characters in the game but suffers from poor handling and average tricks. She wears red and blue goggles, a bikini top and leopard skin pants. The background materials describe that when Linda was 7, she moved to Snow Town because she needed to stay at a hospital there to receive treatment for a rare disease. She recovered eventually, but wished to stay in the village because she liked it so much. Linda's brother Brad replaces her in the Nintendo Ds version of Snowboard Kids.
 * Speed-2½
 * Turn-1½
 * Tricks-1½

Tommy Parsy
Age 10, male

Tommy is the fastest character available by default but has the worst handling and trick ability. He wears bright green clothes and has a bandage on his nose. The background materials state that he's often teased by Slash because of his considerable weight problem; despite this the two of them remain friends.
 * Speed-3
 * Turn-1
 * Tricks-1

Shinobin
Age unknown, male

Shinobin is initially found as an opponent in the last level, and is very difficult to beat. Once defeated, he is unlocked as a usable character. He is a ninja wearing a black shinobi shozoku. He has the most unique of snowboards, ranging from scrolls to Kunai. Little is known about him, including his age. Like Slash, Shinobin has average stats.
 * Speed-2½
 * Turn-2½
 * Tricks-2½

Shots
Shots are used to attack players. You must 100G to buy a shot, which is found in a red shop. The title gives the name of the shot followed by the person who favours the use of the weapon while under CPU control.

Bombs (Slash)
Watch out when using this. Since the radius is big, avoid getting hit with this.

Slap Sticks (Nancy)
The Slap Stick attacks a player very fast. This makes the character stumble down to the ground in the forward direction.

Parachutes (Linda)
When using this, the player is carried in the air and slowly descends to the ground. When used before a big jump the person takes much longer to reach the ground. According to the background material, this weapon is the most effective weapon in the game.

Snowman (Tommy, Shinobin)
Possibly the fastest weapon in the game. This converts that person into a snowman, which makes the character not move unless you hit an obstacle.

Freeze Shot (Jam)
Freeze Shots temporarily turns that person into a block of ice. To be free, jiggle the Control Stick or press a button repeatedly.

Items
Items are used in various ways. Like shots, items cost 100G to buy and you must go through a blue shop. Like Shots, the title give the name of the item followed by the person who favours the use of the item while under CPU control.

Ghost (Nancy)
Ghosts slow down opponents. Usually, the person in first is affected, but it varies. If you're in first, the person in second is going to slow down. If the person in first has already won, the person in second, as stated before, will have a chance to go down to last place, which gives you no money. Ghosts have a max. effect of 3, which slows the victim down to a crawl.

Invisible (Slash, Pamela from Snowboard Kids Plus)
Use this item to dodge attacks, like Nancy said in the Instruction Book. When using this, you can't be shot and you can't get smashed.

Rat Face (Shinobin, Pamela from Snowboard Kids Plus)
This item is a rarely-seen item that summons a dancing mouse to steal money from opponents. Note: If they don't have much, you don't get much.

Pans (Linda)
Pans flatten opponents, making them unable to move. This has no effect on people that are in the lift or invisible.

Speed Fan (Tommy)
Speed Fans increase the speed of the user to around 7 seconds. Do not hit walls while using this. It is also lost if you are attacked.

Rock (Jam)
Drop these on the course to watch characters trip. If you're in first and placed a rock near the lift, the person in second will trip over the rock, causing the victim to lose some ground. If you place a rock on lap 5 at Rookie Mountain near the red line, either Slash or Tommy (usually Slash) trips over the rock.

Courses
The game has nine main courses. Although some of the courses are snowy mountains, many are courses that would be unorthodox for snowboarding in the real world. Such courses include an amusement park, a desert, a vast valley, a dark highway, and a Japanese village during the cherry blossom festival.

The courses are:

Rookie Mt.

A short, easy 5 lap course set on a snowy mountain.

Big Snowman

Another course set on a snowy mountain, but much longer, and only 2 laps long. It features several giant snowmen as decoration.

Sunset Rock

Yet another snowy mountain course, but this time set during sunset. It contains many moving hazards such as penguins, falling rocks, and a snowman that shoots the players as they pass by. This track is 3 laps long.

Night Highway

While snow is still present, this significantly harder level finally takes the player away from the mountains, to an abandoned highway at night. This is the first course featuring several different shortcuts and is 3 laps long.

Grass Valley

Snow is completely absent this time, instead, players race down a large grass covered mountain, going through villages, forests, corn fields, mines and eventually reaching the seaside. This course is 3 laps long.

Dizzy Land

A little snow returns for this large amusement park at night. The race goes through and past many different attractions such as tea cups, roller coasters, dinosaur exhibits, ferris wheels and water rapids. It is three laps long, and arguably the hardest of the starting courses.

Quicksand Valley (Must be unlocked)

Unlocked by placing 1st in battle mode on the first 6 courses, this large desert course is possibly the hardest in the game, and features many hard to avoid pits. It contains 3 laps. Linda takes a shortcut at this course.

Silver Mt. (Must be unlocked)

Unlocked by placing 1st in battle mode on Quicksand Valley, this course returns to the snowy mountainous themes of the opening tracks. It is a very long course with poor visibility due to intentional fogging, and contains several large jumps. It is 3 laps long.

Ninja Land (Must be unlocked)

Unlocked by placing 1st in battle mode on Silver Mt., the final course is themed around ancient Japanese culture. It is the shortest course in the game, but contains 9 laps on battle mode to make up for this. The course is divided into four sections, each highlighting a particular season, from the cherry blossoms of the opening area to the snowy track on the final area.

Animal Land (Trick Game Only)

The only course available on Trick Game, this is a short snowy course with many different animals watching from the side-lines. It is oriented around doing tricks, with a half pipe at the start, many large banks to do tricks on as one turns, and a colossal jump in the middle for a special trick. To reach the finish line without losing the link bonus a player has gained by doing tricks in a row without falling, one must successfully use the grinding rail to cross over the river at the end. This course contains no rail lift and therefore only 1 lap is played in Trick Game. Unlike the other courses which have their own background music, this course shares its theme with Rookie Mt.

Only the first three courses are available on Speed and Shoot games.