"1080° Snowboarding" received "generally favorable reviews", just two points shy of "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator website Metacritic. In Japan, "Famitsu" gave it a score of 31 out of 40. "Nintendo Power" gave the Japanese import a favorable review, over a month before it was released Stateside. It was called "one of the best values in both sports and racing gaming" by Josh Smith of "GameSpot". "1080° Snowboarding" has been perceived to be a leader among snowboarding titles at the time, with "IGN"s Levi Buchanan stating: "Every single snowboarding game that followed 1080 borrows from Nintendo's formula". "Edge" hailed it as the "most convincing video game emulation of the snowboarding experience so far" with an "atmosphere of sobriety" unlike any other Nintendo game at the time.