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SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING (X360)
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Publisher: Ubisoft.
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal. Released: November 2008. Genre: Snowboarding. Other versions: PS3; PS2; WII; PC; PSP; DS. Posted 17th December 2024. By Shane Battams © 2024 |
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Arriving about six years after the peak of extreme sports games, Shaun White Snowboarding nevertheless offered potential. Powered by the same engine that fuelled Assassin’s Creed, players imagined spacious landscapes and stunning vistas, albeit with the assassinations replaced by flip tricks. Unfortunately for gamers, the debut title from The Flying Tomato is lacklustre due to a lack of focus, some baffling design decisions and a general lack of finesse to the most important part of the game: the snowboarding. Unless you bring some like-minded friends to share the ride, you could likely exhaust this one in a few hours.
After creating your rookie snowboarder, players are then guided by the titular Olympic gold medallist along with a crew of boarders who act as guides on each of the four mountains. You also greet a pilot who can take you between key points on each map with ease. Though there is a general structure involving collecting coins, Shaun White Snowboarding is quite relaxed otherwise. You can freely jump between each location from the go, and almost all of the challenges are available too. You can earn cash by completing events and sick trick runs, which can in turnbe spent on boards or clothing to customise your avatar. Three board types are available, each offering benefits that give you an edge in competitions. Freestyle boards, which often have high rotation and speed stats, are ideal for trick events, for example. So far, everything seems satisfactory.
Four large, technically solid mountains await the player, though they're tempered by flawed controls
Sadly, the problems start once you begin snowboarding. There is a real floatiness to the physics and controls that turn the act of snowboarding into a gamble, as your boarder can react to the same inputs very differently each time. All moves are allocated to the right analogue stick, while rotating is done with the left. Tricks and rotations are governed by a wheel with green landing tricks perfectly and red causing bails, but it feels imprecise and inconsistent. Sometimes, tricks won’t score you anything, even with a perfect landing. Other times, keeping the meter in green still results in a sketchy landing. Grinding is even worse, with your boarder sometimes clipping through rails completely. By trying to straddle the line between arcade stylings and simulation, this snowboarder ends up alienating both.
The missions on offer here also fail to spark excitement. The main crux of Solo focuses on collecting coins for Shaun White, as I guess despite winning three Olympic gold medals, he’s broke. Each map holds three coins in higher, often tricky-to-reach places. Once you find all 12 of one currency, Shaun teaches you a focus Power which enables you to repeat the cycle in previously unreachable places. Powers range from ramming capabilities to super jumps, which can be fun to use but drain very quickly, meaning you can be left standing still as you wait for it to recharge. The worst part is, for some baffling reason, it crowbars platforming into a snowboarding game. Considering the aforementioned floatiness of the game and how precise these actions often have to be, lest you fail to reach the coin, it adds up to a painful experience. Best of all, these powers cannot be used to gain an edge in challenges, rendering the entire process pointless.
The missions on offer here also fail to spark excitement. The main crux of Solo focuses on collecting coins for Shaun White, as I guess despite winning three Olympic gold medals, he’s broke. Each map holds three coins in higher, often tricky-to-reach places. Once you find all 12 of one currency, Shaun teaches you a focus Power which enables you to repeat the cycle in previously unreachable places. Powers range from ramming capabilities to super jumps, which can be fun to use but drain very quickly, meaning you can be left standing still as you wait for it to recharge. The worst part is, for some baffling reason, it crowbars platforming into a snowboarding game. Considering the aforementioned floatiness of the game and how precise these actions often have to be, lest you fail to reach the coin, it adds up to a painful experience. Best of all, these powers cannot be used to gain an edge in challenges, rendering the entire process pointless.
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The rest of the game is made up of Challenges and Competitions. Each map contains a handful of short tests which focus on tricking, speed or collection. Most are inoffensive, and some even put the tricking system to good use. Some frustrate though, like races that feature notable rubberbanding and air challenges that have trouble registering your jumps. Each challenge rewards medals after you reach a score threshold, and earning more medals rewards more cash. The cool part about this is the Multiplayer side of things. Not only can sixteen players freely skate around each mountain, but you can also partake in these challenges together. Some of them make for some chaotic fun when you add more people, and you can even add to the stakes with optional betting. Solo Players will likely tire of this game quickly and blow through all the challenges pronto, but social gamers may find more value through all these options.
It’s all the more impressive when you consider the Scimitar engine afforded Shaun White Snowboarding four spacious, visually solid mountains to explore. Though it naturally features lots of snow, each location bears unique quirks which makes for some fun tricking potential. Alaska has a slew of huge mountain jumps, Japan features intricate architecture to integrate into your sessions and Europe has plenty of tundra to contend with. Performance is mostly sturdy, though sadly, races with AI see the frame rate dip. It’s a very attractive game for the most part, even if cut-scenes involving Shaun White descend into uncanny valley territory at points. It’s quite a treat for the ears too, mostly due to an excellent and lengthy list of music which encompasses multiple genres and decades. From MGMT and The Ting Tings, to Run DMC and Living Colour, you’re bound to find something you like. Crashes and bails sound appropriately painful, as does the voice acting from the titular skater (and not in a good way).
It’s all the more impressive when you consider the Scimitar engine afforded Shaun White Snowboarding four spacious, visually solid mountains to explore. Though it naturally features lots of snow, each location bears unique quirks which makes for some fun tricking potential. Alaska has a slew of huge mountain jumps, Japan features intricate architecture to integrate into your sessions and Europe has plenty of tundra to contend with. Performance is mostly sturdy, though sadly, races with AI see the frame rate dip. It’s a very attractive game for the most part, even if cut-scenes involving Shaun White descend into uncanny valley territory at points. It’s quite a treat for the ears too, mostly due to an excellent and lengthy list of music which encompasses multiple genres and decades. From MGMT and The Ting Tings, to Run DMC and Living Colour, you’re bound to find something you like. Crashes and bails sound appropriately painful, as does the voice acting from the titular skater (and not in a good way).
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Shaun White Snowboarding makes a perfect landing right into middling territory. It’s not the worst snowboarding game out there, but a floaty physics engine makes the act of skating around each mountain more difficult than it should be. Adding platforming to the genre proved a grave mistake, turning a coin hunt into a miserable time. Solo gamers will tire of this one quickly, but the technical merits and substantial multiplayer options will likely sweeten the deal for multiplayer fans. Ultimately, your tolerance for inconsistencies will likely determine how much mileage you’ll get, and snowboarding games before and after were better than this one.
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VERDICT
"Floaty physics, miserable platforming and a lack of solo content sees Shaun White Snowboarding landing squarely in middling territory. However, social gamers might find more to like." OVERALL: 5/10 |
OTHER EXTREME SPORTS GAMES REVIEWED
Tony Hawk's Project 8 (2006, Xbox 360)
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Skate (2007, Xbox 360)
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