Giles Goddard, veteran programmer who worked on the likes of Star Fox and Super Mario 64 (he programmed Mario's squidgy face on the splash screen), has wanted to make a 'new' 1080° Snowboarding for some time now, and his development and publishing company Chuhai Labs has now lifted the lid on its new spiritual successor, Carve Snowboarding, as part of the Oculus Gaming Showcase.
Yes, it seems that fans of Ricky Winterborn, Dion Blaster and the rest of the cool 'boarders from the N64 classic will be left out in the cold for some time yet, unfortunately. This new game — prominently billed as "From The Creator Of 1080° Snowboarding" in the reveal trailer (above) — is an Oculus VR exclusive.
Goddard had hinted previously that, subject to funding, he was working on "the best goddam snowboarding game you’ve ever played", and it would appear that Facebook came up with the green to make the dream come true. The game is coming to Oculus Quest and Rift platforms, with no mention of releases on other platforms at the moment, let alone consoles.
The concept of snowboarding in VR might seem a tad awkward, but as you can see from the trailer, it has the potential to really give you the sense of hurtling down the side of a mountain at breakneck speed. The trailer also features a couple of light-hearted moments — yes, you can pet the dog! — including an Easter Egg featuring a blink-and-you'll-miss-it homage to Back to the Future and Marty McFly's hoverboard:
So, what are the chances of this coming to Switch in any form? Well, we've seen VR exclusives like Superhot make the jump to the console successfully, but just looking at this trailer it's hard to imagine how Carve Snowboarding would translate to a TV screen, or even a handheld screen, without seriously altering the experience. While Chuhai Labs is obviously keeping quiet about future plans, a third-person mode isn't totally beyond the realms of possibility, though.
We're keeping our fingers crossed and we'll be looking out for more info on this... before sliding our original 1080 cart into our N64 and taking Panda dude for a spin.
Comments 36
Don't start a title with 1080° Snowboarding when it's not an announcement of a new Switch game in the series, please. I've been looking forward for a next entry in the series for AGES.
VR: "I see your acquired resistance to motion sickness and raise you a snowboarding simulator"
@nhSnork exactly what I was thinking. Instant barf.
@Steel76 Amen. I've let basically everyone I know try Oculus Quest, and every single one of them was completely blown away, even people that was skeptic about VR in general.
I see 1080° Snowboarding in the title and I get all excited!! WHY you do this NL?!? 😭
@Steel76 my two systems I buy games for are the Switch for handheld gaming (98% of my gaming time), and the PSVR (2% of my gaming time). I like being immersed in a game's world, but I like it better to be present in this world as well. VR, to me, is a perfect platform for some first person action and some 3D platforming in which you as the observer also play a role in manipulating the world. But Snowboarding, especially when it actually had 1080 in the title, that would be a no brainer to get on Switch, and to NOT get on VR, for me at least. But yeah, VR is definitely a great way to play, and worth it to get used to a bit, if possible.
Yup, this is exactly what I wanted, a 1080 Snowboarding spiritual successor, that’s an Oculus Quest VR exclusive. /s
It’s not even Nintendo related news. Disappointing to say the least.
Almost had a heart attack with your title!
In my numerous experiences of VR, I’ve always found it impressive and unpleasant in equal measure.
Being dragged ‘fully’ into the game world necessitates being dragged fully out of the one surrounding you, which is not a price I’m always happy to pay. Yes, I want to be immersed in the game world, but not necessarily ‘submerged’ in it, which is sort of the point of VR.
As a piece of technology it’s clearly got a lot going for it, but I’m not invested enough to make ‘the leap’ just yet.
Still, at least Mr. 1080 gets to stretch his snowboarding limbs with a new game, and I hope it turns out decently enough. It’d need a lot of rejigging to make it to Switch, but who knows, maybe it’ll be popular enough to start an avalanche of snowboarding games and one of them will be 1080.
Yeah, that’s a barf simulator for me. If I can’t play Hitman without collapsing then I absolutely cannot play this.
Wave Race VR next? (Please I just want a new entry on Switch.)
Even the Rift is getting more Snowboard action than the Switch.
Nintendon't care about anything other than their cash cows.
@Steel76 Would love a Mario Kart VR. Tried Dash Dash World, it's pretty good but ultimately just makes you want real Mario Kart.
VR is the gaming worlds equivalent to 3D television sets, awesome idea that sounds cool, is cool when you first try it, then gets boring and a bind when you have to wear glasses./headsets, just never going to be mass market I am afraid.
And then you have motion sickness to contend with.
Looks a bit “indie sparse” to me. What made 1080 so good was the controls and simulation. This doesn’t really look like it moves right to me... 🤨
@BumpkinRich Mario Kart VR does exist, just not outside arcades sadly https://www.bandainamco-am.co.uk/virtual-reality/vr-zone-portal/mario-kart-vr/
Whenever I play "Mount Wario" in Mario Kart 8 it reminds me how awesome a new 1080 would be on Switch. ☹️
Sucks that Giles Goddard wants to make a new 1080 and Toshiro Nagoshi wants to make an F-Zero GX follow up and Nintendo's just like "nope"
@Shambo Yeah talk about a bait n switch, this is just some lame VR thing.
VR is cool and all but it'll never replace proper television gaming for me. In VR I feel you get disconnected from the real world way too much and I'm not a fan of that.
Though maybe I just haven't had the right VR experience yet. If I could walk through the Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule Field in VR I might think otherwise. But for right now, nah.
If this ever comes to Switch though in some capacity I may check it out. Depending.
@Steel76 Motion sickness is only a problem for a minority of the planet.
I can use electronic 3D glassess all day to watch 3D movies, and to me it's no different than 2D.
I never got motion sickness from VR either.
@oatmaster Depending on the individual of course, but I find it’s more so the horizontal panning that causes motion sickness. Forwards motion is pretty comfortable (and exhilarating) - even horizontal panning in 2D films creates noticeable dropped frames (24 FPS in Pal) - watch any film that has left/right panning and you’ll see what I mean. It jutters as the camera moves left to right. Forward motion feels okay
@AnalogWave that's interesting, thanks. Thinking back, it's probably horizontal dislocation that I've found the most disorienting too. I do find all of it a bit much for me really, but interesting to note that forward motion might be less of an issue.
@Jamie_R Agreed. The first person view made it seem like you're just a camera zooming down some snow and it looked very odd. Based on the footage, I definitely like my snowboarding to be 3rd person.
I'll say this the nicest way possible: **** ****** Faceboculus with a ****** pair of rusty ********, in their collective *********...
A Rayman snowboarding game? Cool!!
@johnvboy A bit like the computer then...
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olsen, 1977
Future trends are impossible to predict. Nearly everyone who tries to predict the direction technology will take, gets it wrong.
This could be exceptional if they were to link the balance board to the Quest 2. I'd be all over that.
@AnalogWave,
I think VR has had a lot of time to establish itself more, it's biggest drawback is it's best feature, the sense of immersion into the gaming worlds is fantastic, but many will be put off by being totally removed from their real world surroundings.
Just my own personal opinion though, and I feel the situation is so similar the 3D T.V's.
@johnvboy That’s a very valid point. The full immersion, disconnection from reality, is not for everyone. Which is why I wonder whether mixed reality (augmented reality) is going to be the real launchpad towards mass adoption.
@AnalogWave,
Could be the best route, but pretty sure the format can still stay relevant and niche at the same time, it's just the wider acceptance that will be tough to attain with the current set up.
@Steel76 I was like that too. I suffer motion sickness and when I tried VR the first time I went on longer then I should have. Did the same thing the second say so I put off for a week.
After that I started doing shorter sessions like 15m a day then increased it from there when I am at the point that I can go long periods of time without suffering MS.
This looks bad omg
Been a long time since I put on my Rift S, and this game sure isn't tempting me. It has no soul or anything that made 1080 special.
Superhot wasn’t a VR exclusive. SuperHot VR is a different game to the original, and was built from the ground up for VR.
I got motion sickness just watching the trailer, and I’m usually ok with VR.
Oh don’t so that to me NL!!! This isn’t 1080 although it looks good. I need Roy Haywood, Ricky Winterbourne and co.
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