“For those who want to do more than just play games, L3 Interactive is proud to present” …
SLOPE STYLE
As someone who basically does just want to play games though, I’m proud to present my thoughts on this limited release.
One of the first things to catch my attention with this disc was the warning displayed at the start … “L3 Interactive does not recommend attempting any of the maneuvers or activities demonstrated in this program.” It goes on to say how liability for damage or injury is nonexistent. Said warning is also repeated on the back of the instruction manual. And, just to play it safe, they also have multiple references to the warning within the manual too. Wait a minute … isn’t this an instructional disc?
Slope Style, besides claiming to be “revolutionary”, is also called “an epic addition to the Interactive Learning Cube library.” Why a claim like this would be made from a company that only had one other product (3DO rarity Mathemagics) is curious. Evidently they did have a couple other pc only products, but info on these are hard to come by. In any event, the library, at most, could be counted on one hand.
The title starts with a small window full motion video intro. It serves to display the instructors showing off, but nothing more. One of them says how “Snowboarding’s really easy to learn”, while the other encourages to “Find your own style.” Um, why am I viewing this disc then?
The cube interface is gimmicky, and the title could have just as easily worked using the simple method found in 3DO’s ESPN titles. As far as what the cube contains, it’s …
1.) Lesson previews. (27 in total … all very short of course)
2.) Text, audio, and music only (w/key phrases highlighted)
3.) Fmv (in small windows) Hitting the A button brings up a full screen view (discovered by accident as the manual doesn’t indicate this) but it’s fuzzy.
4.) Options and a help section.
All of this is accompanied by the same crappy rock music heard in the intro. It sorta sounds like it was lifted from the ‘Road Rash’ soundtrack but was either b-side material, or rejects that wound up on the cutting room floor. Sad, but the generic menu tunes are preferable. Anyway, turning the audio off in the options is not a bad idea.
Anything I liked? Um … I guess the cursor (an animated snowboarder) was kinda cool. The backdrop of the cube was pretty colorful too. Oh, and the non-plastic jewel case the disc came in was neat (can you tell I’m grasping at straws?
)Really, there just isn’t that much here. Perhaps were I a big fan of snowboarding I’d like it more, but it also begs the question If I would even need a product like this in that case. I just don’t much care for snowboarding, both in real life and even in videogames. (Val d’ Isere – Jag & Rippin’ Riders-DC excluded)
As edutainment goes, this is among the worst representations. And for it’s price in ’94 it was about as far from a good value as can be. Not sure what this fetches today as it is rare, but I say avoid it if unless you are a very serious collector. For the curious, Mathemagics is a better offering from L3, though possibly even rarer.
The best "Cube" is from Nintendo!
-Trev