Embrace the winter season with the SHIRO! community this January! We are kicking off 2026 by hitting the slopes in the snow-shredding Sega Saturn exclusive, Zap! Snowboarding Trix ’97. The Community Challenge begins Jan. 1 and runs until the end of the month.
Participants have all month to perfect their lines in the downhill races of the three Race Mode courses set in Japan, America, and Europe. The “Zap! ’97 World Champ” category — that being the best combined time on the Easy, Normal, and Hard courses — will see the top three positions awarded.
Weekly Score Attack challenges, all of which take place on the four Free Mode courses, will begin on Jan. 4. “Halfpipe Hero” — running between Jan. 4 and 10 — will test one’s freestyle skills as participants compete for the highest score on the Free course. “Japanese Jibbing” — running between Jan. 11 and 17 — “American Alpinist” — running between Jan. 18 and 24 — and “European Express Lift” — running between Jan. 25 and 31 — will test players mastery of the Easy, Normal, and Hard courses, respectively. The winner in the event of tied scores will be determined by fastest time.
Submissions are only valid for times and scores set on 60Hz consoles with the game set to default — Game Level on 3. Top scores and times are shown on the screen following a run.
Bespoke SHIRO! Zap! Snowboarding Trix Community Challenge magnets will be awarded to all winners, with first place in the Zap! ’97 World Champ category receiving a special prize.
For those looking to compete in the Score Attack category, know that Zap!Snowboarding Trix requires a specific sequence of events to enable scoring. You must first ollie — hold down on the D-Pad and press B — to enter a “trick state.” Once in the “trick state,” while still in the air, you can enter a button sequence to perform grabs or rotations to score points. You must complete your trick before hitting the ground or you will wipe out.
Check out the Zap! Snowboarding Trix‘s manual for more helpful tips: https://archive.org/details/zap-snowboarding-trix-saturn-manual/mode/2up
RULES:
- Real Sega Saturn hardware only — ODEs allowed.
- No emulation. No Action Replay or Pseudo Saturn cheats. No cheating.
- 60Hz consoles only!
- The “Game Level” must be set to “3” — which is the default setting — for the Race Mode challenges.
- Photographic evidence of times/scores is mandatory.
- To submit your score, please post photo on SHIRO! Community Challenge Discord Channel and complete THIS FORM.
- The challenge organizers reserve the right to request video evidence for submissions.
TIME ATTACK: Compete in Race Mode
- Zap! ’97 World Champ: All January long
- Best combined time on the Easy, Normal, and Hard Courses
- Top three participants will receive prizes
SCORE ATTACK: Compete in Free Mode
- Halfpipe Hero: Jan. 4 to 10
- Highest score on the Free Course
- Japanese Jibbing: Jan. 11 to 17
- Highest score on the Easy Course
- American Alpinist: Jan. 18 to 24
- Highest score on the Normal Course
- European Express Lift: Jan. 25 to 31
- Highest score on the Hard Course
Developed by Atelier Double, Zap! Snowboarding Trix was released in February 1997 only in Japan. It remains a true Sega Saturn exclusive.
This game was always so junkie, my brother and I had a few laughs and booted this game from time to time just to laugh at it again.
Its gameplay is atrocious, its visuals are even worse. And this is from a time, we as 11 to 12yo boys noticed even back then.
I`m curious to see how this challenge goes, and see how they adapt to this rather bad game.