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::PUBLISHER::
Ubisoft
::DEVELOPER::
Ubisoft Montreal
::GENRE::
Sports
::RELEASE DATE::
11/16/08
::PLAYERS::
1-8
::LIVE::
Xbox Live play, Leaderboards, Downloadable Content
::COST::
59.99
::FEATURES::
720p/1080i/1080p, In-Game Dolby Digital
Good: Shaun White Snowboarding starts out rough but after learning the ropes and getting involved with the
Bad: Trying to figure out just what the hell you’re supposed to be doing and controls.
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Shaun White: Snowboarding Review
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Put together snow, Shaun White, and a controller and you got Shaun White’s Snowboarding. A reasonable equation = a good game?
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It used to seem like every year there was a new, fresh snowboarding game for gamers to get their hands on. There was the Cool Boarders series and the ESPN games inspired from the X-Games. As the next generation came about we saw the emergence of Amped and the SSX series. Both of these series really nailed what everyone wanted from a snowboarding game: absurd speed and insane tricks all at the flick of the joystick and press of a button. Players will find a cheesy grin permanently stuck on their faces. The Wii is the only next-gen platform to see a decent snowboarding game from the SSX series. There was a lot of excitement when Shaun White Snowboarding was announced. I even dusted off my SSX 3 to get a few runs in to level out my enthusiasm for a potentially great game. Now the game has arrived and I wish they would take it back.
By slapping the biggest name in the sport on the box, wanting something excellent is not a big request. Remember when the first Tony Hawk games hit? The feeling of finally getting your hands on a game that balanced arcade and realism so well that you couldn’t help but play for hours? It is what I expected from this game, but it was not delivered. I hate to say it, but we are playing games in HD and they should look amazing or at least pretty darn good. Shaun White Snowboarding falls short in this area and actually makes me want to go back and play the much crisper looking SSX Blur on the Wii. A Wii game looking better than a 360 game is not a good sign in my book.
Ubisoft also took the liberty of telling us that since Shaun White likes to listen to classic rock. Because of this, players will find a lot of that genre coming through the speakers. There are a few other songs that are tossed in to help break up the stale feeling while playing. There is custom track support thankfully as this is probably the worst soundtrack for a game in recent years. I would say there are three songs I enjoy listening to and less than a handful more than I can tolerate. Seriously, how is "Don't Fear the Reaper" going to help me land that Rodeo (Back-flip 540) or let go of the grab at the perfect timing to avoid a "sketch" landing causing a loss of control? Good song, but save it for Rock Band. It takes more than one person to create a game but it seems that Ubisoft used one person’s taste to create the soundtrack. Sure, Shaun’s name on the box, but that is no excuse to have a really unbalanced soundtrack in an action sports game since music is such a major part of its identity in the real world.
One of the major areas of concern was the control scheme. Simply put, the game controls have poor execution. Using the R2 button to jump in a snowboarding game doesn’t seem to go with the flow. DICE did an excellent job of nailing that control scheme in Mirror's Edge but that is another story and a totally different environment. It just does not seem to fit in Shaun White Snowboarding. It felt like I was fighting with the controls to get it to do what I wanted. That really began to sour my experience. Note that all of this was within the first 20 minutes of the game.
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