WE GOT A NEW CHARISMA! The SHIRO! community kicked off 2026 shredding the 32-bit slopes of Zap! Snowboarding Trix ’97 for our first organized challenge of the year. As the Zap! faithful undo their digital bindings — some intrepid fans literally packing up their Satun Arcade Racers — and enjoy a well-earned hot cocoa, let’s break down the action that just wrapped up.
The January competition changed some minds. SHIRO! hosts these challenges with the express goal of highlighting often overlooked or underplayed Saturn games, and Zap! Snowboarding Trix ’97 fits the bill perfectly. Fourteen dedicated Saturn fans fought through the initial jank the title is known for — as expressed clearly in the leading quote above — and found the gem beneath.
Racers competed all month-long for the for Zap! ’97 World Champ podium — awards given to the three lowest total time across the game’s three racing courses. The competition was stiff. SEGA RPG FAN controlled this leaderboard with top times in all three races for the opening two weeks of the challenge, at times leading by nearly 20 seconds. There was, however, a looming sense of dread as Fart Daily was sharing videos of his training — via emulation —and was days away from entering the competition proper. These training times were incredible.
“Zap! Snowboarding Trix: America Course (Normal) in 2:40.79 (emulator)” by Fart Daily.
Like a prophecy realized, Fart Daily began officially submitting times at the mid-month mark and shot to the top of the overall leaderboard overnight, surpassing SEGA RPG FAN by approximately 10 seconds right out of the gate.
Not wanting to go down without a fight, SEGA RPG FAN would narrow the first- and second-place gap by a few seconds in the following days. The jostle for podium positioning was by no means a two-man race. G.G. had been rapidly making his way up the leaderboard in the days following Fart Daily’s shakeup, managing to push SEGA RPG FAN to the bronze position with a hair’s-width lead — less than half a second — with 10 days remaining in the month. SEGA RPG FAN is no rookie when it comes to SHIRO! Community Challenges and played the long game, leaving G.G. unchallenged in his second-place position.
Days went by, a false sense of security grew, and Score Attack challenges called G.G.’s attention. Then SEGA RPG FAN struck back. On the final day, in the closing hours, SEGA RPG FAN posted a 3 second improvement to his Medium (aka America) Course time. The podium positions were sealed.
Fart Daily reigned on top for an impressive 17 days, ultimately ending the month with a combined time of 6:45.19. SEGA RPG FAN took home the silver with a time of 6:52.50. Closing out the top 3, G.G. had a time of 6:55.19. These racers had been untouchable by the other contenders for weeks. To put these times into perspective, the fourth-place time was 7:09.51, set by WorldlyBoar, which itself was 10 seconds ahead of the fifth-place time. From crafting “mountain skip” strategies, to timing optimal powerslides, the podium was truly in a league of their own.
The excitement of the Time Attack challenge was only part of the story as there was also a Score Attack category, split among four week-long challenges — those being Halfpipe Hero, Japanese Jibbing, American Alpinist, and European Express Lift.
The careful reader might be confused given the latter three of the aforementioned challenges were announced as part of the Hybrid Category — best time with a predetermined minimum score. By the second week of January, it was abundantly clear that the organizers had grossly underestimated what the SHIRO! Community was capable of. Multiple days of internal discussions, and a good deal of math, led to the decision to transform Hybrid into a simple Score Attack with the best time serving to tie-break if needed.
Unlike the close competition of the Time Attack category, each weekly Score Attack challenge was ruthless dominated by one individual, G.G. It was never close. G.G. took each event with tricks to spare. Far from sitting back and savoring his time on top, G.G. went to great lengths to explain his exact approaches and strategies, going above and beyond to invite competition.
The closest G.G. came to feeling any real pressure was in the Japanese Jibbing challenge, where howyouben scored within 1,000 points — approximately one trick — of his 8,630 score. Howyouben, while not topping any of the challenge leaderboards, deserves a shout out for coming in second place in three-fourths of the Score Attack events.
TIME ATTACK:
Zap! ’97 World Champion
- 1st Fart Daily
- 2nd SEGA RPG FAN
- 3rd G.G.
SCORE ATTACK:
- Halfpipe Hero – G.G.
- Japanese Jibbing – G.G.
- American Alpinist – G.G.
- European Express Lift – G.G.
The Zap! Snowboarding Trix ’97 Community Challenge saw more than 100 submissions and a month of intense exploration, discussion, and memes. We at SHIRO! think that this true Saturn exclusive might just be viewed in a new light moving forward.
All prize winners will be receiving bespoke magnets. As the Zap! ’97 World Champ, Fart Daily also won a one-off hat. All prizes for this challenge were designed by SaturnDave and made by Xiden.
An archived copy of the Zap! Snowboarding Trix SHIRO! Community Challenge tracking spreadsheet can be found here.
Thank you to all who participated!
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