UEP Systems' first Dreamcast title has landed and with it the hopes of snowboard maniacs everywhere. Cool Boarders Burrrn (which will not come to America with the same name) is the first extreme-sports title to hit the 128-bit system. But does it have what it takes to topple 1080 Snowboarding from the peak of the snowboard-game mountain? From the evidence available, probably not. While the game moves at a consistently smooth pace, running in high, high, high resolution, all at 60 blistering frames per second, the gameplay falls flat of what might be expected. You'd think that freed of the PlayStation's 32-bit limitations, UEP Systems might have gone for a little more gusto than what's being offered. Unless you play against a second player, you never race against another person, at least not initially. Sufficient progress hasn't been made in the game to see if any extra modes open up. Only a handful of tracks have been unlocked, and the game is quite difficult - difficult in an old-school Ridge Racer kind of way. Bump into a wall or other track obstacle, and you will suffer a great decrease in the time allotted to get to the next checkpoint. Collision detection can be frightful, causing you to bump like a pathetic pinball stuck in a corner of some unruly pinball machine. There's a block button you can use to shield yourself from some course obstacles, but get stuck in a corner, and you can forget about it. You might as well start the race over.

　　Tricks are as intuitive as they could have been. Once you figure them out, it's not so bad, but boarders have their own style, so it's hard to keep track of who does what best. Finishing first on a track requires more than just speed. You must combine a fast finish with a high trick score in order to come in first place. The half-pipe and some secret stunt-tracks range from way too short, to really, really long. Of course, there's a two-player mode, which lets two gamers race against each other.

　　The music is different for each boarder and includes reggae, hip-hop, house, techno, and other genres, and it's actually pretty good. Unfortunately, the soundtrack might be better than the game itself. Wait for the full review before committing to an import purchase. The unforgiving track designs will take some beating before we uncover all the secrets.