1080 SNOWBOARDING

HARD MATCH RACE [DION + PENGUIN]

EXPERT MATCH RACE [ROB + PENGUIN]

EXPERT MATCH RACE VS GOLD BOARDER [ICE MAN + PENGUIN]

ALL RACE COURSES IN TRICK ATTACK [30K+ on all, GOLD + PENGUIN]

[These are taken from my review at Backloggd]

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: This game isn't too easy to pick up and play.
That is because the game is ABSOLUTELY not gonna sugarcoat it for you when it decides when you had angled yourself properly for landing after a jump...and if it decides you aren't, you're wiping out face first to the snow.

Looking close at the board just to make sure its angled properly, pressing [or even rapidly tapping] the Z button as you land hoping that it helps, and just trying to keep your rider steady when trying to make turns and avoid hitting walls, the game has its ways to punch you in the gut despite the fact it seems as simple on the surfaces as just steering with the stick and jumping.

That said, if you can tame the controls, you can sure deal with Match Race with enough time. If you can beat Expert, you can get the Ice Man...and then you will really get your skill tested, as while this secret character you first face off there has its perks, you're forced to play catch-up until the very end when you run against the Gold Boarder, which is as fast as Dion Blaster [highest max speed as non unlockable character] but has a far easier time landing on the ground than him.

If you're just playing for the Match Race, then that probably would be it [if you make it that far], but as I was playing through the RetroAchievements set, I had to take in way more and practice for Contest [go between flags and do tricks, not just for score but also for the challenges where you have to get all flags without fail in each race track], Time Attack [I used the Gold Boarder + Penguin for good measure] and Trick Attack.

Trick Attack is, pun unintended, the trickiest one to deal with as a newcomer when talking about achievements due to the ones that want you to go BEYOND beating the default high scores...require 20k or higher points racked up in the tracks. And to do that, you need to make use of trick combos + the 720/900s...or learn how to do the 1080s.

The upside of 1080s in here compared to Avalanche is that, the moment you learn how to do them semi consistently, it is a no brainer to go for them for quick big points due to how much it is worth to pull one off [although I've seen that WR runners instead opt to chain 900s back to back due to the bonus from long combos]...

...And the downside is that the input is something that only a grappler main on a fighting game could love. I happen to be one, but long story short, not only you have to spin the stick three times with button presses [B on the second one, B+Z on the third one], but unlike what the game's training mode may imply, you need to let go and hold the R button for EVERY spin.

So you have to go like this:
Hold R + Spin
Let go of R quickly
Hold R + Spin + B
Let go of R again
Hold R + Spin + B + Z

And as you may guess, not only that's complicated to pull off, but also easily gets your hands tired when you try to roll them off repeatedly. The other upside here though is that if you can get the inputs well even off a charged jump from a standstill on flat ground...you can still get those 1080s, which is different from Avalanche actually requiring you to take enough airtime to spin enough times. And of course, if you can learn 1080s, you can also opt to instead go for 900s that may give you around half the points a 1080 does, but if you can chain them consistently, they should also do the job.

With that said, I think that the barrier of entry is deceptively evil enough that it makes it a tough recommendation for anyone, and doubly so the RetroAchievements set due to how you have to really put the work on your hands and dexterity to pull off big tricks, as well as patience to go through the Time Attack challenges [and if needing a hand, unlocking the Gold Boarder at all].

If you are someone who fancies a steep challenge without needing to press a million buttons, but rather just apply yourself as good as possible to the fundamentals, then it should click with you.

Also, the Dragon Cave special time attack achievement refuses to work right now for some reason. If you're trying for it, I'd recommend recording a video of it in case you need to submit a ticket to get it manually given to you since the achievement itself doesn't seem to work reliably if not at all...UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: As of July 25th, I finally got the manual approval, so I OFFICIALLY have the Mastered badge in this game LETS GOOOO [and what's nicer, while for some reason the broken achievement DOES say it was approved at July 25th, I guess the date when I sent my video for it was taken in mind and thus the Mastered badge actually says Julty 12th - the day I DID go for the TA run]