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Shaun White Snowboarding
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Graphics & Sound:
I consider myself a positive person, so I'll start on the positive side of the equation and give some praise to Shaun White Snowboarding on DS for featuring some awesome tunes, albeit a smaller selection compared to what is available on the larger consoles. It's not every day that you see names like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Run DMC, Modest Mouse, and Living Colour attached to a game. The only artists with songs on the DS version are Mooney Suzuki, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sweet, Run DMC, Sloan, Stabbing Westward, Kasabian, Anti-Flag, and Incubus. It's not like this is a lame list, but of course we'd be happier to see the same list of artists and songs that those other gamers get. You'll see this theme come up again and again in relation to how Shaun White Snowboarding for DS compares to its big cousins.
The style of Shaun White Snowboarding is a departure, not trying to be realistic but taking a more cel-shaded, animated look. You'll choose between one of four ultra-cool characters to start playing, and open up more along the way. The slopes are adequately animated and you get some cool boards that you can decorate with decals collected as you ride. The biggest disappointment is how flat the trick animations are when you pull them. No cameras cutting in to show your cool contortions, no replays, and no video uploads. The Ubisoft Web site comes dangerously close to framing the DS version of Shaun White Snowboarding as having the same kind of design features as the game on other platforms, like customizable avatars, videos, and off-board action. Nothing like this features in the DS version, which doesn't get even a nod on the Shaun White Snowboarding Web site. |
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Gameplay:
The other elements of Shaun White Snowboarding that didn't make the trip from the large consoles to the DS are the community aspects. Riding with friends is possible through the system link, either with one opponent via the single-card option or up to three via the multi-card option. The single-card play is barely worth the effort, although it might convince your cheapskate friend to stop mooching off you and go get his own copy... Playing with friends that have a copy of the game will open up more possibilities, including the chance to trade decals you've collected along the way in your solo rides. The other features you'll be able to tap in multi-card play include options for pure racing against friends, or Freestyle where the tricks matter more than how you place in the lineup.
This all stems from a solid single-player mode that has you build up your skills by proving yourself in a variety of race and challenge modes, across several mountains in different parts of the world. Again, a smaller set of options are available in terms of locations you'll have to explore, and it takes forever to get out of the first area, Park City. In the full-blown, "explore the entire mountain" version of Shaun White Snowboarding, you don't worry about being stuck in Park City. The DS version is a bit different, as your choice of slopes is limited to exactly seven short runs down the same mountain. The logic is that you'll get a chance to test yourself on the gentle Park City area before moving up to be tested against tougher competitors and rougher territory. The reality is that you'll find yourself bored stiff in Park City before you can free up those new areas. It's like the game was artificially extended to make up for what it lacks in depth.
Each time you start an event, you'll have the option to race any open downhills routes against a field of competitors, or race an open challenge. Newly opened races and challenges will grant you "passes." Earning enough passes will open up locked areas of the game, and racing for anything other than passes is a bit silly. There are some decals scattered around the mountain, but these can mostly be gathered during normal races or challenges. The challenges represent the real challenge in Shaun White Snowboarding for DS, as you have to meet specific criteria before reaching the bottom of the mountain. As you map out your route before a challenge run, you'll see some helpful little icons that show which challenges can be found along the way. Yes, you can blow away a few challenges during one run, which helps to earn those passes. Examples of challenges include grinding a certain distance, gathering the letters S-H-A-U-N on the slope, or pulling a trick in a specific place on the slope. It's nice that you can move around between races and challenges, but there's still a feeling of bouncing around Park City for a bit too long before moving into new territory. |
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Difficulty:
Controlling your board on a real slope is hard. Speaking as someone that fused several vertebrae (at least it felt like it) taking falls on hard-packed snow and ice from a snowboard, this is not a sport for the faint of heart. Especially when you look at the style of riding popularized by Shaun White, you see something that very people can do at all, much less do well. In the spirit of extreme sports, we expected to play something much more rip-roaring than Shaun White Snowboarding for DS. The pace is languid on almost any part of the mountain, and the jumps either have a floaty feeling that seems to last forever, or are over far too soon. Wiping out or bumping into something on the track feels like an inconvenience more than a disaster, and neither will set you back very far against your competitors. The control scheme, which relies heavily on using the stylus, is great for riding but less ideal for pulling tricks. You can swipe the stylus a few times to create some cool moves, but not really with great precision. The good news is that none of the drawbacks in Shaun White Snowboarding prevent you from clocking high scores and mopping the slope with your competitors. This won't be the level of challenge that most gamers signed up for, making Shaun White Snowboarding something like a bad imitation of itself. This might be the thing you play in the lodge while waiting for that hot cocoa to cool down, or in those places where you can bring your big console.
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Game Mechanics:
The only advice we'd give is to not count on playing Shaun White Snowboarding for DS with one hand. The control scheme appears simple enough, but takes some getting used to if you intend to pull tricks and master the challenges associated with tricking. The touch-screen displays the outline of a board, which you hold your stylus on to make your rider cut left or right, sit back on the board, or lean forward for additional speed. Motioning down and up on the ramp for a jump will cause your rider to grab some air, giving you the chance to pull tricks. Tricks come from a combination of the D-pad and the (L) or (R) button, depending on whether you use the DS with your right or left hand. Pulling a trick successfully off a jump will give you a speed boost, which comes in handy if you've taken a spill and need to catch up with the other riders. The traditional method for gaining speed is to lean forward on the board, but this takes a toll on how quickly and precisely you can cut left or right. Slopes are empty and have few obstacles, so you'll spend most of your time pushing the stylus forward and trying to gain speed by jumps and tricks. There are times in Shaun White Snowboarding that you can take a detour, usually when there's some gnarly jump or obstacle in the track for pulling tricks. Big drop-offs are also areas you'll look for in order to string together several tricks, but the game's graphics don't do a great job of injecting that sense of height and speed.
Better snowboarding games are out there to be had on the DS, and although Shaun White Snowboarding plays fine in most respects, it is a shadow of the game on other consoles. The thought process behind this release seemed to be for a companion to the "real" game that Xbox 360 and PS3 owners get to enjoy. This version is missing so many things that make Shaun White Snowboarding interesting on other platforms. Not even a nod to online play or leaderboards is present here, just the closed-off multiplayer mode assuming you have four friends with copies of the game. Shaun White doesn't appear in Shaun White Snowboarding for DS until late in the game, and we wonder how much input he provided during development. Considering the high standard for detail paired with the reckless abandon and fun spirit that has made White such as sensation, nothing about Shaun White Snowboarding for DS feels like a reflection of the actual Shaun White. He'd want us to play better... |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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