GOTD 4/26/2016: Val d'Isere Skiing and Snowboarding (JAG)

[celerystalker]

Val d'Isere Skiing & Snowboarding for the Atari Jaguar is exactly what the name implies, which is to say a skiing and snowboarding racer set in France's Val d'Isere mountain resort. You play as a generic winter sports enthusiast who can either free ride and practice the mountain or compete in a series of races in the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom events. The goal in these is to qualify in the first three races in order to compete in the final of each event. In free ride, you must simply complete various courses, hitting checkpoints along the way for more time, Outrun style. Completing courses opens up new sections of the mountain to race. All events can be done on either skis or snowboard. Try and clear the whole mountain!

Val d'Isere really has the look and feel of a Sega super scaler game, with all of the scaling sprites and fast play to go along with it. Free ride is easily my favorite mode, as it's basically Outrun on a snowboard. In all events, though, you have the same controls, which are accelerate, brake, hard turn, and jump. Everything is very responsive, and I don't find myself blaming the controls while I play. The courses are of a good length, with a lot of turns, slopes, and obstacles. The only real complaint I have is that it can at times be a little easy to lose sight of the track, as the majority of it is white, and there aren't always a lot of bordering objects to identify the edges, and it doesn't have the color contrast benefit of the road and grass from Outrun or Hang On. Still, it never gets out of hand after you've played for a little to get a feel for the game.

The music is okay, but I wouldn't call it a selling point. The graphics, though, are nice and crisp, and anytime you draw comparisons to Sega super scaler games, it's a compliment. Everything is super smooth, and the game runs very, very fast. It may even feel too fast at first, but once you settle in, it only adds to the arcade feel of the game.

In a lot of ways, to me this is Outrun on a snowboard, and you can tell it's from the same folks who did Super Burnout on the Jaguar. It isn't as polished as Sega's classic, but it most certainly is representative of what more Jaguar games could have been if not for the 3D obsession of the day. Color me a fan.

Played this one?

[tom]

Yes, I loved this game when I still had a complete Jaguar collection. Like you said the graphics are nice/clean, not at all like the Cybermorph graphics, and the gameplay is fantastic, especially with the Jaguar controller (I don't like any Japanese-forced-upon-the-western-world controllers), which isn't of the best for holding a long time. And also, yes, it is easy to get the grips with it straight away, and gameplay is fun.

[celerystalker]

Yeah, I love these scaling sprite graphics. The textures on the snow look pretty good, too. I get the feeling that Atari was really enamored with the smooth shading gradients they could get on textureless polygons and mostly stayed away from these types of games for fear that they'd appear primitive. I'd love to see the homebrew scene get really ambitious and move away from Defender clones and the like and try to make a Galaxy Force clone. I bet it'd run like a boss on the Jaguar.

[Steve W]

I was always disappointed by the bland terrain. I've never gone skiing or snowboarding before, but from videos it seems like the downhill runs have some bumps and hills on them, and edged with forests. The Jag game seemed a bit limited. Better than other skiing games up to that point, but still. I mainly picked it up because at that point I would have picked up damn near any new release for the Jaguar, other than hardcore sports games.

[celerystalker]

I was always disappointed by the bland terrain. I've never gone skiing or snowboarding before, but from videos it seems like the downhill runs have some bumps and hills on them, and edged with forests. The Jag game seemed a bit limited. Better than other skiing games up to that point, but still. I mainly picked it up because at that point I would have picked up damn near any new release for the Jaguar, other than hardcore sports games.

Yeah, its quality relative to other Jaguar games is greater than its quality relative to all games. It would have benefitted from some neat angled slopes and turns, but I feel like it still works pretty well as an arcade-style racing experience, but as a snowboarding game, it's been outclassed by what followed.