[Review] Shaun White Snowboarding

[NANO]

Shaun White Snowboarding is a sports video game for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 systems. It was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, published by Ubisoft, and released in 2008. The Wii edition of the game, Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip, was developed from the ground up for the system, taking full advantage of the Wii Balance Board accessory and featuring its own unique storyline and adventure with Shaun White.

There are six mountains in Shaun White Snowboarding, including Alaska, Park City, Europe, and Japan. Each mountain features up to three different sections: peak, back country, and park (or resort). There is also a "Target Limited Edition" of the game that is exclusive to Target; this version gives the player access to Target Mountain, a mountain with Target branding all over it. It has been described in-game as extremely difficult to find, and contains additional jibs, character models, and a sponsored version of the standard game's best snowboard which can be unlocked before the player's final challenge against Shaun White. The last mountain, called B.C., is only available in the "Mile-High Pack" paid downloadable content. It is set in British Columbia.

Shaun White can be controlled with just a remote or a combination of remote and Wii Fit balance board, and both work well. The board tends to be a little less precise, and for some of the game's harder challenges you may have to step off and take the mountain with just the remote. But for most of the events either input method will suffice. Switching between the two schemes is a breeze and can be done at any time during a game.

If you're just rocking a remote, tilting it side to side will handle your steering. It's surprisingly responsive and works better than most Wii racers that use tilt controls. Pressing A will cause your boarder to tuck in and increase speed, although you'll lose some maneuverability. Holding the B button will allow you to carve left and right but your momentum will take a nose dive. Giving the remote a quick flick will cause you to jump. While airborne tilting will get you to spin and the B button will perform grabs. You can also flick the remote in different directions during a jump to perform one-off tricks.

Throw the balance board into the mix and your steering and jumps can be controlled with your feet while the remote will still handle carves and grabs. You stand on the board sideways, just as you would on a real live snowboard. Turning is done just by leaning forward or back with your rear foot. A small bounce will make your avatar jump. Tricks are accomplished by placing weight on different combinations of the balls and heels of your feet as well as pressing the A and B buttons. Three levels of sensitivity are available when the game calibrates the board. For the most part riding this way feels really good, but as I mentioned it's just a little less accurate. Turning and spinning are a bit easier with the remote, but getting up on the board is a lot of fun. It's really a toss up as to which control scheme is superior and if you have a balance board you'll probably enjoy using both methods.

This is a casual, literally pick-up-and-play game. Not only are the controls easy to master, grinding has been simplified so that if you're anywhere near a rail when you jump your board will lock to it. If you approach the beginning of a rail head-on you don't even have to jump -- the game will automatically put you up there. These aren't complaints. Ubisoft has crafted a game that is easy to get into and feels really good to play. Each event has two goals: an easier "dare" goal and a more challenging "respect" goal. Casual players can proceed briskly through the game just by achieving dare goals, but the respect challenges are also fun and extend the experience. Like most snow- and skateboarding games you'll have to chain tricks together in order to rack up higher scores. It's not as deep as other action sports games, but it is definitely fun.

The premise here is to give players the sense of camaraderie that comes with travelling and snowboarding with your friends. You start out with three people in your group and as you progress more will join along the way. Each rider is proficient in different areas like speed, jumping, and landing. For any challenge in the game players can choose a rider and a cameraman to follow (your cameraman also provides a stat boost). We're encouraged to use a variety of riders because the challenges are always changing from tests of speed to skill-based trick contests. The idea is you're travelling around the world trying to catch up with Shaun White

Real-world camaraderie is also available as the entire game can be played cooperatively with a friend. Unfortunately, this isn't a drop-in/drop-out feature, so you can't continue a co-op game on your own or bring in some help if you're having trouble in single-player. Competitive modes for up to four players are also available in both simultaneous split screen and hotseat games where everyone takes turns. Of course, only one balance board can be used at a time.

Shaun White has a good licensed soundtrack, including a wide variety of music from bands like Run DMC, Blue Oyster Cult, and Audioslave. Tapping the 1 button during a ride will cycle through the track list. Sound effects also sound great, especially when skidding over ice. The remote's speaker is used to indicate when you've nailed a trick.

A kid-friendly, motion-controlled version of Shaun White Snowboarding could have been a disaster, but this turns out to be a truly slick edition of the franchise. Not only is this one of the best-looking Wii games available, both remote and balance board controls feel really nice. I recommend it regardless of whether or not you own the board. This will be another good one to bring out when your non-gamer friends come over, as it fits the "pick up and play" description perfectly. The option to work through the entire game cooperatively is great but it would have been nice if your progression could carry over between single- and multiplayer. Overall this is a polished package and a great example of how to treat the Wii version of a multi-platform game.

 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
• Graphics: AMD Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 6800 XT
• System Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Storage: 8 GB Hard drive space
• DirectX 9 Compatible Graphics Card