November 05, 2003 - Today, Nintendo hosted a teleconference with NST´s Shigeki Yamshiro, President, and Vivek Melwani, Lead Game Designer, regarding their upcoming title 1080: Avalanche. IGN was only one of several media outlets with its ear clamped to the phone receiver. We were able to pick up a few key details about Nintendo´s update to the snowboarding classic, 1080 Snowboarding.

NST´s president, Mr. Yamashiro, opened the discussion today by noting that this is Nintendo´s first return to 1080 since its creation. 1080: Avalanche was a secret project assigned to NST by Mr. Miyamoto soon after the completion of Wave Race: Blue Storm. Mr. Yamashiro also noted that since NST is composed of people from all over the world, he assured that Avalanche has Nintendo of America quality with an international flavor.

After the brief introduction, Vivek Melwani, Lead Game Designer for NST, took the floor. The Avalanche team was composed of twenty-five people who were set on making an entirely new game -- while keeping the feel of 1080´s key concepts. These elements were revealed to be the controls and the feel of the different slope surfaces. With this mind, the team took to the slopes to study snowboarding through both hands-on experience and questioning semi-pros. Knowing that 1080 is a tough act to follow, the team reviewed all prior criticism and decided to make the trick and landing system more forgiving. They also came up with the idea for the avalanche -- to have the game revolve around interactive environments.

After these opening statements, the floor was opened to questions. The most pertinent is that since our last hands-on of the game, NST has been busy polishing the game, specifically snow effects and really building up the avalanche.

In response to how 1080 would hold up against competition form SSX3, they stated that they´re trying to make the best realistic game on the market. They think that the franchise will be more than enough to hold its own -- and that gamers will recognize the quality.

When asked about their next project, NST only mentioned the Mario and Donkey Kong games already in production for the Game Boy Advance -- no comment was made on future GameCube titles.

Also of note is that 1080: Avalanche will be one of the titles that can be used to acquire the new Zelda Compilation Disc.

Expect a full transcript of the teleconference later today.

http://cube.ign.com/articles/458/458134p1.html?fromint=1

En résumé :

-1080 avalanche est un projet secret confié à NST depuis l´achèvement du développement de Wave race : blue storm.

-Le président de NST , monsieur Yamashiro a déclaré que l´équipe de NST était très variée , les personnes qui y bossent ne proviennet pas seulement du japon , ce qui pourrait assurer la qualité de 1080 , par ces multiples experiences en matière de conception de jeu.

-L´équipe " Avalanche" se compose de 25 personnes travaillant à créer un jeu de snowboard novateur , mais qui reprendrait les principes de base de 1080 snowboarding , tels que les contrôles ou les sensations.

-Depuis les derniers démonstrations de 1080 avalanche , NST a amélioré le jeu , surtout au niveau des effets de neige, et du réalisme des avalanches.

-En réponse à la manière dont 1080 avalanche compte supporter la vive concurrence de SSX3 , NST a répondu qu´ils tentaient de réaliser le jeu de snowboard le plus réaliste qui soit sur le marché.

-A propos de leurs projets futurs , NST a répondu qu´ils planchaient sur les franchises de Mario et Donkey Kong , sur GBA.
Aucune déclaration à propos d´éventuels projets sur Gamecube.

Ouais ba la version que j´aie essayé manquait cruellement de fun, je sqais pas si c´est lié au fait que debout devant ma borne un pad entre les mains j´était sencé me sentir comme sur une vrae piste avec tous les problème d´équilibre et autre que ça entend mais en tout cas là ça casssait pas troi pates à un cannard!