Shaun White Snowboarding Review
Board or die! Or not. Whatever, man.
by Russ Fischer
Based solely on his namesake video game, Shaun White's must be an easy-going guy. No matter that it's the latest entry in the so-called 'action sports' genre. (No longer 'extreme sports', thank you.) Yes, the game features various challenges and competitions, some to be played alone and others designed for multiplayer groups. But the overriding concern is to capture the basic feel of snowboarding, not the 'lifestyle'. You'll coast along the lip of a mountain crevice or slalom through trees... if you want to. You'll race and do trick competitions, if you want to. Granted, without competing you'll never unlock all of the game's potential, but you could spend all your time just tooling around on the mountain and still come away feeling like you'd really experienced the game.
The structure is built on an open-world sandbox design, much like Grand Theft Auto and similar action titles. There's even less structure than in GTA, however. Four mountains, in Park City, Japan, Europe and Alaska, are open to players right from the start. No need to unlock the more difficult peaks, as you can basically get to each as soon as you desire. Each one has a few lifts, maybe a helicopter pad to reach the highest points, and a bunch of floating bubbles representing challenges that can be activated, or not, as you like.
Sports games are typically intent upon distilling the essence of their subject. So if you're playing a football or basketball game, the idea is to present the most intense, concentrated experience possible. Shaun White takes a big gamble by diverting from that strategy. Specifically, you'll have to spend a certain amount of time off the snowboard, looking for new places to ride. The trick mostly pays off. There's enough to do that you don't strictly have to explore all that much, but to master the game you'll have to do what real pioneering boarders do, and seek out new runs.
The action is both the game's high and low point. On the upside, there's nothing quite like breaking through a stand of trees to find an amazing run laid out before you; it's easy to feel like you've actually found something. On the downside, in a game that has to get all the physics right when it comes to riding on the board, wandering on foot can feel like an afterthought. You'll find weirdly impassible hillsides and icy areas; obviously UbiSoft doesn't want you flying around the world like Sackboy in Little Big Planet's level design mode, but more balance would be nice.
"By adding a welcome dose of exploration to the tough-love simulation aspects of Amped, it presents a vision of the sport that is much closer to reality than the sparkly fantasies that have characterized snowboarding games since SSX."
Easing exploration somewhat is a marker system. Just tap the d-pad to bring up the option to either drop a marker or warp to the one you've placed. It's a great idea, but being able to place more than one would be a big help. Even being able to drop three markers would have kept the exploration intact, but the focus squarely on what you do one you've found stuff -- board down it, hell-bent for leather.
(Incidentally, the d-pad also functions as a sort of iPod control, to manipulate White's well-chosen set of classic rock, hip-hop and other music cuts, and to enable some of the instant multiplayer features. It's a great little interface that works very well.)
The actual boarding is very simulation-oriented. Anyone who played the Amped series will be right at home. The left stick controls tricks, which can be modified with the shoulder triggers/buttons. The controls are easy, but not forgiving. That's because Shaun White isn't an arcade game -- you won't instantly do the sort of magical tricks that characterized the SSX series. Until you've earned enough cash to buy boards that go really fast, and therefore gain much more air off ramps, you'll be doing more spins and grabs than elaborate flips. Those moves do come (especially when you realize that just jamming the right stick forward or back halfway through a jump won't do the trick) but the game requires a bit of patience to get to that point.
Making that point earlier on would help ease players into the system. Shaun White doesn't offer much in the way of tutorials. You'll be given some hints, and others will pop up over time during gameplay, but a solid little instructional run on a bunny trail would help a lot. Instead, you're left to figure most things out via trial and error. That's not a big deal, since most of the lessons that need to be learned are pretty obvious. Will some players get frustrated anyway? Yep.
To enable the mountain vistas UbiSoft makes use of the same graphics engine that powered Assassin's Creed, and the games look very similar. For the most part, it's all to good effect. The character models and boards seem to have weight, which is important when you'll be manipulating them in aerial tricks, and the scenery is varied and beautiful.
And yet there are small issues that tarnish the beauty. At any one point there might be a dozen other boarders around you, and they don't always look quite tethered to the snow. Scenery can get drawn in very late, or the frame rate might sag in fast runs, making the action look choppy. And while most of the snow surfaces look great, some ice runs look like they came from the PS2. Nothing breaks the game, but there are too many little snags not to mention.
By and large, Shaun White Snowboarding is a fresh take on the genre. By adding a welcome dose of exploration to the tough-love simulation aspects of Amped, it presents a vision of the sport that is much closer to reality than the sparkly fantasies that have characterized snowboarding games since SSX.
Posted: 14 Nov 2008
