In the game, players control one of five snowboarders from a third-person perspective, using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks across eight levels.

[4] The objective of the game is either to reach a level's finish line as quickly as possible or to achieve the highest score by executing trick combinations.

In these modes, players can achieve victory by selecting alternate routes within a course and balancing the snowboarder after jumps to avoid losing speed.

Each snowboarder has unique abilities and is suited for different levels and modes, as they vary in statistics such as technique, speed, and weight.

Each snowboard is tailored to different situations, as they offer varying strengths in areas such as balance and edge control.

[13] 1080°'s release was announced on 21 November 1997 at Nintendo's Space World trade show, with its working title previously being Vertical Edge Snowboarding.

[19] During development, programmers Goddard and Reed used a technique called "skinning" to eliminate joints between the polygons that made up the characters.

[5] The game's soundtrack, composed by Kenta Nagata, features a mix of "techno and rappy beats" with "thrashy, foozed-out vocals.

1080° Snowboarding received "generally favorable reviews," according to Metacritic, falling just two points short of "universal acclaim".

[5] Minor graphical issues, such as occasional pop-up, misplaced shadows, and slight lag when racers passed through trees, were noted but considered insignificant.

[5][31] Although Edge gave 1080° Snowboarding a generally positive review, it found faults with the game's AI, accusing it of "cheating" due to its tendency to allow CPU opponents to quickly catch up near the end of races.

Shawn Sackenheim of AllGame considered the game's "highly technical" controls to be a strength, despite their initial difficulty.

[43] Computer and Video Games reviewer Alex Huhtala agreed, praising the controls and dismissing the notion of difficulty, stating they were so well-implemented that "you’re able to play perfectly well with just one hand on the stick and Z button.

[31] The game's music was widely appreciated, with IGN describing it as "a shining example of what can be achieved on the format,"[5] while Sackenheim called it "one of the best N64 soundtracks to date.

In a 2006 retrospective, Official Nintendo Magazine hailed 1080° Snowboarding for having the best video game representation of snow at the time and commended its sound effects and handling.

In a 2023 retrospective, NME's Mat Ombler commended the game's soundtrack, noting that it helped introduce underground electronic club music, including drum and bass, to a broader audience, similar to the impact of the Wipeout series.

[47] It was also nominated for Best Nintendo 64 Game at the 1998 CNET Gamecenter Awards, but lost to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Greg Kasavin of GameSpot provided a more critical assessment, citing "frame rate issues and limited gameplay" as major drawbacks that detracted from the experience.