If you're a gamer looking for a snowboarding game in the vein of SSX you're going to be dissapointed. Luckily, that isn't what this game is about. I've been snowboarding for 7 years, and have been waiting for a game that captures the spirit of what snowboarding is all about. To date of the 3 most popular snowboarding games: SSX, Amped, and 1080, they focus on either one or the other: racing or obtaining the highest score possible on a linear path.
Here's a quick summary of what you should expect:
Gamers will hate:
the controls (they take a while to get used to) and they should be customizable
half pipes and impossible tricks are missing
runs have no straightforward path
Snowboarders will love:
+ you can choose any path on the mountain you want (almost no boundaries)
+ Graphics are the best yet with the Assasin's Creed Engine
+ Hitting challenges with friends over xbox live or psn
+ Having a plethora of real merchandise to customize your character to match the gear you actually wear
+ No fake tricks (ie SSX), pulling 360 rodeos in the game feel realistic and fulfilling
+ 4 mountains to choose from (Europe, Park City, Japan, Alaska) that allow you to carve down the entire mountain any way you please
+ backcountry, gaps, and lips to explore
+ physics are for the most part accurate. Uses havoc technology for the momentum of the tricks, and speed (gravity) you travel down a mountain. Characters have a weight to them.
In the end, this isn't the perfect snowboarding game that it could have been. There could be a bit more polish (controls should be completely customizable, interface and animation could have been a bit smoother) But, this is by far the best snowboarding game I have ever played. I highly recommend Shaun White Snowboarding for xbox 360 or ps3 with the caveat that you snowboard and play videogames, if you're a gamer expecting a Tony Hawk snowboarding game look elsewhere.
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This game is great in many ways, but it's also lacking many things and has quite a few glitches in the online mode. My biggest complaint with this game is the controls. As an avid gamer, I can quickly adjust to almost any control setup, but this was really bad and they aren't customizable. The controls are not setup well for doing tricks, which is why most people online tend to just rotate, or do flips.The graphics are terrific in most areas, the mountains look great from afar and whether you're heading down the mountain or looking up, it all looks terrific. As I mentioned previously, it's great in many ways, but also lacks many things, this is one of those areas. When you use the board to slow down and turn, or other various positions it looks as if they're just stretching the pixels because the trail looks the exact same as the area right behind it.
Throwing snowballs at other riders is really fun at times, but it can also be incredibly annoying. One rider can keep two riders pinned down and if that rider continues to keep you pinned the only thing you can do is pray they get bored or that someone comes to your rescue and hits them with one. Even then, you may not have enough time to escape.
You can customize the riders appearance with a number of different jackets, pants, gloves, backpacks, goggles, bindings, and even a speedo. All the items cost money with the exception of the bindings and the speedo is the most expensive at $20,000!
The boards in this game make a huge gap for competition. If you're using a beginner board in online play, it will be near impossible for you to win a competition if someone is using one of the better boards because of the large gap in quality. The speed and velocity of the better boards put the beginner boards to shame, and they're also unrealistic in some ways. The top boards you can do front and back flips with as you're riding on a somewhat flat piece of the mountain and land it perfectly. There's no chance of that with a beginner board. Now imagine trying to keep up with that differential on the halfpipe!
Online play is really where it's at, but there are multiple glitches. Sometimes two riders will do their halfpipe run at the same time, each collecting a score, but you'll only be able to view one of them, and the "second" person usually gets kicked out after being "idle" for about 15 seconds and this happens frequently. For some reason unknown to me, you can get stuck. I was stuck right in the middle of a run, not inside the mountain or a hole like that, but I just got stuck on the mountain. People tried throwing snowballs at me to knock me from that spot but they just went through me. The only thing that fixed it was someone putting out a challenge and I accepted it. I've also had "NICE RUN" flashing on the screen for multiple runs and challenges and it made a noise each time it flashed. It finally disappeared after 15 minutes, but I don't know what the remedy was. Online play is like single player, because you can still accumulate points, money, and collect the euro's, but you also get to talk to other people playing online and compete against them in challenges. If there is an on-going challenge, hope you're near the top of the mountain because the chairlifts will not be working no one can get on them.
One area with no downside, however, is the soundtrack. This game does not have a single bad song in it. It just plays hit, after hit, after hit.
The maps in this game are huge, and the entire mountain can be part of your run. You can jump across to different slopes and take advantage of the entire mountain.
This game is not like SSX, although it does have racing competitions available. This game is very realistic and you shouldn't expect to be able to do 1080's on every jump, this game is very realistic, although the "falls" could use some work. Rather than wiping out, you just pop up and keep riding, and sometimes you may not get points for the tricks because you fell, but you stayed up the entire time. (If you play the game you'll understand what I mean.)
Overall, I would say try to find this game used, or on sale. It's fun for a bit and will make you want to get your board out and ride, but I don't see myself coming back to it very often.
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So I'm a snowboarder and I've been annoyed with the arcade style of most snowboarding games to date. Amped was good because it gave you real mountains but I felt like technology needed to catch up in order to get the snow and physics right. I think we're getting closer with Shaun White Snowboarding.The graphics are par for today's games except there are frame rate T
stutters when you're riding the chairlift and looking around at the whole mountain. The frame rate is good when it actually matters.
The game starts you off with a crappy board and you have to earn cash to buy better ones for ridiculous prices. Just hold out for a mid grade board and once you upgrade you'll start to really feel what this game is like. Once you u have one of the best level boards, the game gets even better. It's a shame they don't at least tease you with how good the controls feel with a real board because some people will simply give up before they get a good board. So give the game a chance and it will grow on you.
Honest reviews on Shaun White Snowboarding - Xbox 360
The game play in Shaun White snowboarding is excellent. Definately the best snowboarding game created up to this point. The game is loads of fun. There are 4 different large mountains with a ton of challenges for solo and multiplayer play. There is also a huge selection of gear boards,bindings,jackets,hats, etc.. You can take the chair lift or jump out of the helicopter. You can do pretty much all the tricks in the real world in this game, including flatland tricks. The realism is unprecedented and extremely enjoyable at the same time. The game even has avalanches that you can outrun or be swallowed up by.If you want to take a break from doing tricks the game even has races for Single player and multiple players..
All in all this a great game, i recommend it for any one that enjoys snowboarding or skateboarding games, or for people looking for a new kind of gaming experience..
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they really werent trying when they made the engine for this game. there is such a limited bag of tricks its rediculous in this day and age. the graphics are sub par at best. the animations are stiff. the challenges are boring and repetitive. the controls are clumsy to say the least.there is honestly no excuse for a snowboarding game to be thrown together like this. not after we saw the greatness of SSX Tricky and SSX 3. those games did just about everything right. from the controls, to the trick list, to the character customization. this game did none of that right. everything is so simple, limited, and poorly implemented its horrible. it feels more slapped together than a Courtney Love makeup job.
the only redeeming qualities this game has to offer: a good soundtrack for the most part, and fun online. getting a few friends together for a trip down the mountain can be entertaining (wears thin after a couple days though)
the fact that this outsold Prince of Persia(the other big ubisoft holiday game) is a travesty. to be fair though, neither game lived up to their expectations or potential. the thing is, where prince of persia is barely above average, this is just awful. barely worth a rental if you ask me.
i think im done with snowboarding games till we get a next gen SSX.
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