GameSpy Review of Shaun White Snowboarding

Whether you're talking about a pro rider or those kids on your block who got matching boards under the tree last Christmas, nobody goes snowboarding alone. OK, maybe if you happen to work for a ski lodge you'll cruise out to the slopes for a solo session every now and then, but for the most part snowboarding is part action sport, part social gathering. Without somebody to share the road trip and lift rides with, the sport can be a lonely (and expensive) endeavor. That's something to keep in mind when playing Shaun White Snowboarding, as it's a game that's much better played with friends.





When you pop in Ubisoft's ode to snowboarding's most famous redhead and ride solo, you'll have your choice of four vast mountains to ride on (Park City, Europe, Japan and Alaska – the special-edition Target Mountain must be unlocked). White himself is more a guide than integral part of the game; in the beginning he introduces you to a few characters and supplies a few basic tips. The game itself isn't rigidly structured, in that you could just ride around and explore the same mountain all day if you wanted. However, to complete "Shaun's Quest," you'll need to collect three coins from strategic places on each mountain.





Once you've found all twelve coins and Shaun's hideout, you'll gain access to special skills or new places to ride (like the Target Mountain which, while fun, isn't a mind-blowing addition). Collecting the coins turns into an exercise in platforming, which we found entertaining for a little while. However, after a few hours went by, we realized we were spending more time with our board in hand, running up and sideways across hills trying to find what we were looking for. There's a radar, but it isn't very helpful, so the ability to drop markers on different areas of the course and relocate to them as you wish saves a lot of time and frustration.










Shaun White Snowboarding is quite accessible while riding down the mountains. How accessible, you ask? As an experiment, we pointed our rider downhill from the top of "Alaska" and allowed him to cruise freely without touching the controls. Not only did he get down the mountain in about five minutes without crashing once, he even scored points by landing smoothly on rails and pulling off successful boardslides. Pulling off tricks is slightly harder; as you'll jump with the right trigger and manipulate the right and left analog sticks to pull off a multitude of spins and grabs. Landing isn't very difficult, provided you stop tricking within about a half-second before landing. Far more difficult is the halfpipe, which we have to admit we couldn't master. Due to a complete lack of instruction in the manual and tutorials that were far from informative, we never got past nailing a few tricks in a row before falling or losing momentum completely.





As White told us during an interview while promoting the game, "Anybody can go chuck a trick, but if you make a run look really easy it's probably the hardest thing ever." That's one of this game's problems -- it makes snowboarding look and feel too easy. While the mountains and snow provide some pretty scenery along with some decent graphics, Shaun White Snowboarding doesn't bring the player close enough to the action to really get the blood flowing during a solo run. You pick up "Speed Demon" points for going fast, but the rider doesn't seem to be moving much faster than normal. Sometimes the speed does become noticeable, but the camera pans back to show a wider angle of the course, taking away the sense of speed or the need for quicker reaction times.







When your need for speed does lead to mistakes, you'll see that the collision detection is rather poor. Crashes seem almost random at times, and running full-speed into a tree will often slow you down so little you'll wonder if the tree was made out of wood or Nerf. Unless you fall into a crevice, crashing is just a slight bump before popping back up and riding again -- if only real snowboarding were so easy. We also noticed a few bugs, including one that stopped the game near the end of a close race and forced us to turn off our console. Unless the coin retrieval really strikes your fancy, riding solo is like a mellow cruise down the bunny slope rather than a death-defying free-fall.





Shaun White Snowboarding is a game that cries out to be played with and against others. Once online, you'll find plenty of riders on every mountain, constantly inviting each other to different challenges. Instead of "Speed Demon" scenes that are yawn-inducing in singleplayer, the multiplayer "Rat Race" is a breakneck race down the mountain against your friends. You might not be going any faster than when you were riding alone, but the thrill of the chase comes close to matching the adrenaline felt when actually snowboarding.





In multiplayer, trash-talking abounds, as do snowball fights. "Jibfest" tests your skills tricking off everything but the snow (rails, gates, tree logs, etc.), with whoever scores the most points wins. However, even multiplayer has its drawbacks. While waiting your turn, you must watch each rider's 90-second run. Unless you're competing against friends or really enjoy talking to strangers, that adds up to a lot of downtime, making the racing challenges a much better choice for most. You can also gamble money on different events and spend your earning on the brand-name board or accessory you've had your eye on.










However, new boards, clothes and backpacks are hardly what will excite the people who get into Shaun White Snowboarding. Nor will the soundtrack, which features some good songs that get repetitive fairly quickly. It's the multiplayer competition that is going to drive this game. Up to twelve people can take on each challenge, and we can definitely see groups of friends spending quite a bit of time battling on cold winter days from the comfort of a warm living room.





Ubisoft clearly wanted to create a realistic game that captures the camaraderie of snowboarding. While they succeeded to some extent, the dance with realism gets awkward. The scenery is attractive and realistic but hardly jaw-dropping, and you can pull off tricks that even White would never dream of attempting. Transporting yourself via lift chairs and/or helicopters can be fun but hiking around on foot (or even worse, hopping around with your board attached to your feet) is quite tedious.





In all, we'd recommend Shaun White Snowboarding to those snowboarders who either have an online connection or people to play against at home. While the singleplayer campaign doesn't give gamers many reasons to stay engaged, we can envision a large online community racing, tricking and wagering while snowballs fly through the air. Because really, isn't that what snowboarding is all about?



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