In 1995, Namco gave everyone a ski pass with the introduction of Alpine Racer, a game that allowed players to strap their feet into individual ski-like controllers and grasp two realistic poles as they showed off their best moves down the icy slopes of a Swiss mountain. The overwhelming success of the game led not only to a sequel, Alpine Racer 2, but also a follow-up game utilizing another favorite winter sport, snowboarding, in the 1996 game, Alpine Surfer.
This time around, players stood atop a realistic snowboard, but their mission was the same – make it down the slopes under the stress of a timer ticking away in the background. A plethora of fancy tricks could be performed, each of which scored plenty of bonus points. But, miss one of those valuable checkpoints along the way that added time to the clock and the quest was likely to end in failure. And should you fail to execute that fancy trick and wipeout, the pressure increased substantially because that unmerciful clock was still ticking. There were two distinct courses and two levels of difficulty for each, providing plenty of opportunity to sharpen those snowboarding skills.
Namco scored another hit with winter sports enthusiasts by bringing the thrills of snowboarding to arcades everywhere in Alpine Surfer - even in places that had never seen a flake of snow drop since the ice age. And that was surely worth a quarter or two. No sporting equipment to buy, no heavy jacket required and no travel arrangements to make. Just a trip down to the local game room to show off all those mad snowboarding skillz to all your friends.
This time around, players stood atop a realistic snowboard, but their mission was the same – make it down the slopes under the stress of a timer ticking away in the background. A plethora of fancy tricks could be performed, each of which scored plenty of bonus points. But, miss one of those valuable checkpoints along the way that added time to the clock and the quest was likely to end in failure. And should you fail to execute that fancy trick and wipeout, the pressure increased substantially because that unmerciful clock was still ticking. There were two distinct courses and two levels of difficulty for each, providing plenty of opportunity to sharpen those snowboarding skills.
Namco scored another hit with winter sports enthusiasts by bringing the thrills of snowboarding to arcades everywhere in Alpine Surfer - even in places that had never seen a flake of snow drop since the ice age. And that was surely worth a quarter or two. No sporting equipment to buy, no heavy jacket required and no travel arrangements to make. Just a trip down to the local game room to show off all those mad snowboarding skillz to all your friends.
