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Dom Robinson reviews
Eidos Interactive Limited
Chillis Eidos Interactive’s answer to the popular Playstation CoolBoarders series where snowboarding is the name of the game and speed isof the essence.
Playing the Game
In-game Controls
Left/right: Steer your boarder left/right
Cross: Pressing Cross prepares your boarder to jump. The longer it is held down, the bigger the jump performed when button is released.
Square: Boarder will tuck into a more aerodynamic position to allow you to reach higher speeds.
Circle: Pressing this whilst steering will make you turn faster, which is useful for sharp bends and avoiding obstacles.
Triangle: Pressing this causes you to twist your board in and out of the Fakie position. If you’re travelling in “the Fakie” position, a drop in speed will be experienced and a double-arrow sign will appear on the left of the screen.
Trick Controls
L1 & R1: Press either of these while holding Cross to perform left/right twists, and the longer these are held down, the faster the twist will be.
Up/Down: Press either of these while holding Cross in preparation for a jump and you will perform a front/back flip.
L2: Press while boarder is airborne to perform a Mute grab but you must release this before landing or risk “wiping out”.
R2: Press while boarder is airborne to perform a Method grab but you must release this before landing or risk “wiping out”.
Playing The Game
Chill is different from other snowboarding games, in that there is nopredefined route down the course. More often than not, the decision aboutwhich route to take is left up to the player and the track will split severaltimes along its length to produce many possible routes. The key is to find thefastest route taking advantage of any short cuts or steep, speed-boostingsections.
There are five different courses to try: Winter Sports, Village, Forest,Glacier and Free Ride.
Options
Several options are available :
Audio: Toggle Stereo/Mono sound, and alter the SFX andMusic volume.
Split Screen: Toggle the horizontal/vertical split in two-playermode.
Ghost Rider: Toggling this on allows you to keep up with yourselfin one-player mode.
Controls: You can select from two different pre-set buttonconfigurations and select analogue/digital control.
Load/Save: These options are also available for keeping track ofwhere you’re up to.
Hints & Tips
As well as finding the fastest route down each track, a couple of extra movesto aim for are :
Graphics, Sound and Playability
The graphics are basic and fairly blocky, and consist mostly of the sameobjects approaching the player time and time again such as logs, chalets andtree stumps. Even in the forest scene when the trees begin to fall over towardsyou at regular intervals, what first appears to be a challenge proves fairlyeasy as the collision detection is very poor making it easy to sail throughthe top third of each tree without a hitch.
The sound is also fairly basic during the game, mostly consisting of thesound of your snowboard against the snow as you head down the slope. A numberof uninspired tunes play in the background.
The playability is in question as well. Most of the time you let your characterdrift down the slopes, helping him to meander to one side or another from timeto time and occasionally pulling off a trick jump or two when they actuallywork, making the ‘bonk’s more a matter of luck than judgement.
Overall
Also, when it comes to the aspect of there being no predefined route downthe course, this comes across as meaning that whereas certain areas of thecourse are fenced off, you can jump over the fences and into that area, butyou’ll need to be able to get yourself out of there as well, and on each coursethere’s only one route most of the time which is down the slope. Halfway alongthough this will split into two separate routes which is about as “no predefinedroute” as it gets.
The U-bend section of the “Winter Sports” slope is also rather disappointing.While you can perform one of four different trick-jumps when you fly into theair, these are only achieved by pressing one of the top left/right buttons atthe correct moment, making it a rather mundane affair.
Overall this game is a mild diversion from the usual, but whatever speed yourcharacter is appearing to belt down the slopes it doesn’t feel like you’regoing that fast. Add to that a two-player option that doesn’t work well – thehorizontal screen-split impairs your performance by not being able to see what’sgoing on just above and below your line of vision; and the vertical splitrestricts your view of items to your sides, making it difficult to judgefast turns – and the end result is a game which sees you going through themotions, not one that grabs the attention making you flinch at every twist andturn like it should have done.
If you’re after some more info on Eidos Interactive’s games, you can checkout their official Website atwww.eidosinteractive.comGRAPHICS : **SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC: **PLAYABILITY: **ORIGINALITY : **ENJOYMENT : **——————————-OVERALL : **
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.