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Systems > Xbox 360 > S > Shaun White Snowboarding > Staff Review
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Review by Felix Arabia
December 05, 2008
The game centers on professional snowboarder Shaun White and his fresh protégé (that’s you). He’ll teach you new abilities that are useful for mastering the mountains you’ll be shredding, and you’ll even get to perform a few stunts as the masterful boarder himself. Though he looks like Carrot Top’s lost twin brother, Shaun White performs the toughest tricks with the utmost ease. You, on the other hand, will begin your career as a so-so boarder. Win events to make some cold hard cash. Buy new clothes and gear for added success. Collect coins. Learn new abilities from Shaun White. Become the master of your domain. I’ve basically described the entirety of the game’s single player mode.
Up to sixteen people can soar down mountains in the game’s online multiplayer, and far fewer can take to the slopes at any other time. What’s important to note, however, is that no matter which mode you’re playing, single or multi, the snowboarding is fundamentally the same.
Gone are the familiar button layouts made famous nearly a decade ago in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. While that game series is obviously about skateboarding, and this title is clearly of the snowboarding variety, a similar control system had historically been utilized for both extreme sports subgenres. Performing tricks in Shaun White is different. Your moves depend on which direction you press the R-Stick. It took a little bit of practice for me to become acclimated to this new layout, but it eventually started to feel natural.
You can perform aerial maneuvers or grind on any kind of railing, such as fallen trees or building rooftops. To obtain maximum points, obviously it’s best to get a high multiplier by precisely landing consecutive tricks. Falling on your face or smacking into a tree will break your score, but at least you can take solace in knowing that it won’t fracture any bones.
For some reason, I’ve seen other website reviewers complain that collisions aren’t real enough. Instead of turning into a giant splotch on the mountainside every time you wipeout, your character quickly hops back onto his feet without any sign of damage. Honestly, would you want your boarder to die every time you sped into a tree or landed headfirst during a 300-foot drop? I wouldn’t, either.
Another invalid complaint that I’ve seen arise is that it’s difficult to find important locations on the mountains. This is partially true, but there’s a way to make it easy. For one, there is a map and radar to show you where most major points of interest are located. Only the coin locations are hidden. Should you slide past your destination, it can be potentially irritating trudging back up the mountain. However, you are able to set a marker point and then warp to that point should you ever botch a run or miss a coin. I found this inclusion to be invaluable.
As for the actual mountains themselves, they are impressive to behold. There are four total slopes – or five if you’re playing the Target limited edition – and each one possesses its own theme and landmarks. There’s Park City, which is based off of a real ski resort in Utah. There are also entirely fictitious levels based in Alaska, Japan, and Europe. The Target limited edition has its own Target-endorsed resort. We love product placement.
While the mountains are all snow-covered, ice-capped, and rocky, they each have their own points of interest and are pretty fun to snowboard. One of the most exciting moments in the game occurs when, upon descending from a mountain’s summit, your reckless boarding triggers an avalanche and you have to outrace a wall of oncoming snow.
Shaun White Snowboardingplays best when you’re leisurely snowboarding. Thankfully, you can do many activities without first engaging in the aforementioned coin collecting. However, if you do decide to do it, you’ll be treated to the game’s shallow story. The cinematic sequences are poor. Shaun White’s character looks particularly woody, and the voice acting isn’t anything to write home about. The game’s soundtrack, on the other hand, has a nice mix of older and modern songs, mostly coming from various subgenres of rock.
The aesthetics are the best part of the package, as the environments look great and the tunes fit the setting well. There are many little technical issues that eat away at this game’s quality, however. Sometimes the camera goes berserk when your character finds himself near a large wall. Other times his entire body will shudder as his board tries to get parallel with the slope. These issues wouldn’t be worth noting if they were few and far between, but they occur more regularly than I would have liked. They take away from the experience as a whole, which is unfortunate, because Shaun White is the type of game that has the upside to be really good but ultimately finds itself suffering at the hand of silly mistakes.
Since the mountains are large enough, and the pacing affords you a great amount of freedom in deciding what to do whenever, players who take the time at becoming familiar with the game will probably be the ones who stick with it the longest. If you’re looking to get right into the heart of the game (coin collecting), then the presentation may dissuade you from spending too much time on the slopes. I don’t know what the real Shaun White is like, but the in-game Shaun White is kind of a goofball, and his coin collecting activities and silly behavior around women don’t do him any favors in giving me the benefit of the doubt.
Luckily for everyone involved, I’m not reviewing Shaun White the man; I’m reviewing Shaun White the game. I found it to be more enjoyable than not, but boy could it have benefited from something more meaningful than coin collecting!
*This review covered the Target limited edition version of the game.
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Good For the most part, this is a good game. It has its share of flaws, but you should find it above average overall. |
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Staff reviews represent the opinion of the individual staff member that wrote them and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the site staff as a whole. If you disagree with the contents of this review, you may click to leave feedback on our dedicated forum. Thank you!
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Title: Shaun White Snowboarding |
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