Shaun White Snowboarding Xbox 360

Released on 14/11/2008

• Shaun White Snowboarding Review

  White Christmas

  In the past there have been two very different types of snowboarding game - authentic simulations like Amped, and freaky, arcade-style romps like SSX filled with wild stunts and eye-popping visual effects. Shaun White Snowboarding plants its board somewhere between the two, providing realistic controls and environments, but looking to seduce casual players with some crazy tricks and a long, low learning curve.

  Trick star

  The action takes place over four huge mountains - Japan, Europe, Alaska and Park City, Utah. There are no set courses in Shaun White Snowboarding; instead you're free to roam through each location, finding your own slopes and trick sites as you attempt to complete Shaun's challenges. There are loads of jumps and jibs (grind rails) to happen upon and the environments change as you venture further down the slopes. From open mountain at the peaks, to forest locations and finally, parks at the bottom filled with freestyle half-pipes. Outdoor fans can hike around or, if you're feeling lazy, you can take a helicopter to the mountain summits. The idea of making your own way around really helps to provide an immersive feel and while the visuals aren't mind-blowing, there are some wonderful views to discover as you trudge through the snow.

  It's a really entertaining, highly sociable experience that is really what snowboarding is all about for most people.

  Like EA's Skate, Shaun White Snowboarding takes a physical, simulation-based approach to the control interface. Simply put, the left stick deals with general movement while right handles grabs, though as you play, you realise it's more complicated than that - trial and error proves the best method to really understanding things. The shoulder buttons add modifiers to give you access to the large range of tricks which include spins, flips, grinds and grabs. It's all very naturalistic so you won't be performing triple somersaults before grinding along the roof of a ski chalet.

  Treasure hunt

  Although it's possible to play alone, the real fun of the game is the multiplayer experience. Similar to the excellent Burnout Paradise, Shaun White Snowboarding presents a persistent online world where gamers can just turn up, meet other players and challenge one other to quick racing or tricking competitions. You can even start snowball fights with your fellow boarders. It's a really entertaining, highly sociable experience that is really what snowboarding is all about for most people.

  A really interesting, superbly conceived snowboarder with a great multiplayer mode and some marvelous environments.

  Shaun White Snowboarding's most eccentric feature could turn out to be the deal-breaker for some. In order to progress through the career mode you need to locate a set of coins hidden around each mountain. This adds a sort of action adventure/platformer feel, which you may enjoy, or you may feel utterly detracts from the authenticity of the experience. It doesn't sit comfortably with the rest of the game which aims to make you feel like you're really on that mountain with all your mates.

  The sensation of speed, or rather the lack of it, is another issue. At first it's rare to feel like you're building up any sort of momentum so you don't get the excitement of plummeting down a hill with only a modicum of control over your character. As you go through Shaun White Snowboarding it's possible to unlock better boards and other equipment but many players crave that sensation of terminal velocity right from the start and will feel robbed when they don't get it.

  The White way of doing things

  Shaun White Snowboarding is a really interesting, superbly conceived snowboarder with a great multiplayer mode and some marvelous environments. Once you get the hang of things, find your style and start kicking through those challenges and events, you realise this is much more like a snowboarding holiday than a straightforward sim, and that's the whole darn point.

  There are idiosyncrasies in here for sure, but Ubisoft didn't just follow the arcade or sim blueprints, it forged its own route and took a few risks - get together with some mates and do the same thing. You'll have a (snow)ball.

  GAME's Verdict

  

  • Interesting open-world structure.
  • Loads of tricks to learn.
  • Excellent online mode.

  

  • Lacks a sensation of speed.
  • The coin collecting aspect is controversial.
  • Falls between a sim and an arcade experience.

  Review by: Keith 'Let It Snow' Stuart
  Version Tested: Xbox 360
  Review Published: 05.12.08

  Published: 05/12/2008

• Gaming's Sporting Heroes

  
  

  Olympic fever has gripped the planet, and we're only just over halfway through a year that has already been defined by amazing sporting action. From regular favourites like Wimbledon and the UEFA European Championship, to the glitz of the Olympics and surprise wins in the Tour De France, sport has never hogged so many UK headlines. As always, where there's an audience, there are video games looking to capitalise on the popularity - and a famous face certainly helps to catch our attention (although Mario and Sonic don't really count...). Here's our look back over the history of sporting heroes in games.

  

  You can almost go back to the dawn of gaming and find examples of famous athletes promoting games. Daley Thompson's Decathlon was one of the enduring classics of the 8-bit home computer era, a keyboard-bashing run through ten track and field events overseen by the ghostly white pixellated face of digital Daley.

  

  It was inevitable that a footy-loving nation such as ours would attract a flood of cheesy football endorsements as well, with everyone from squeaky scouser Emlyn Hughes to telly pundits Saint and Greavsie, to top flight players like Gazza and Beckham, putting their name to digitised kickabouts. We even had the bizarre sight of a Peter Shilton goalkeeping game, cheekily renamed Handball Maradona after the infamous "hand of god" incident at the 1986 World Cup. And while there's no name on the box, there's no ignoring the key players endorsing both FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer even today.

  
  

  

  Ever-obsessed with sports and strategy, it didn't take long for American software companies to follow suit. John Madden had already retired as both player and coach when his name first adorned the Madden NFL American Football simulation in 1988, but it kicked off a series which endures to this day and is widely considered to be the benchmark of gridiron gaming. Madden was part of the EA Sports stable, a label that knows the value of the right endorsement. In 1999 the company's popular PGA golf series became Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and the fairway superman has been the face of golf games ever since. Indeed, the close tie between game and name may soon become a problem, as the digital Tiger performs better than his struggling real-life counterpart. Will the series revert to plain old PGA Tour when Tiger's star fades, or will EA find a new golfing hero to carry the torch?

  

  That's the gamble when signing a player at the peak of their game. Sometimes, a games company will sign an up and coming athlete in the hopes of backing a long term winner. That worked for Nintendo, when it paid a young Mike Tyson $50,000 to use his likeness in the NES Punch Out boxing game. Within months, Tyson was on his way to being the world heavyweight champ, and the retitled Mike Tyson's Punch Out benefited from his success in the USA.

  

  In the UK, meanwhile, Punch Out was ported to home computers with our very own Frank Bruno as the main character. Punch Out returned to Wii minus its star, while Tyson makes a surprise return to games this year in WWE '13, re-living the brief sting he spent using his name to boost the wrestling company's ratings.

  
  

  

  Often, a sport will bubble up to the top of the popular consciousness thanks to the eye-catching feats of a particular sports-person. In the late 1990s, it was Codemasters that perked up long-running, but fairly obscure rugby and cricket sims, by shrewdly putting hot new stars like Jonah Lomu and Brian Lara above the title. Likewise, it was only when legendary racer Colin McRae put his name to the publisher's rally games that they became the owners of a blockbuster franchise, and while the DiRT series has continued to thrive without him, it was his name that got the customers through the proverbial door to begin with. Such moves weren't restricted to cult UK sports either. In 1999, Japanese firm Namco quickly rebranded the latest entry in its fledgling tennis series as Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis in order to attract European gamers.

  
  

  

  It's perhaps notable that the area where celebrity endorsement paid off most spectacularly was in the rise of extreme sports, where off-beat personalities are more openly celebrated and the players are more likely to be gamers. Tony Hawk pioneered this with his skateboarding games, lending not just his credibility but also his insight and expertise to ensure maximum authenticity. Snowboarder Shaun White and BMX rider Dave Mirra quickly followed Hawk's example. Hawk's back this year, too, in an HD re-jigging of some of his classic titles for Xbox LIVE; he's gone from extreme rebel to a traditional figure, but we still love him!

  Whenever sport becomes national obsession, you can bet an enterprising games developer will seize the opportunity. Gold medal-winning swimming star Michael Phelps has got a head start on his Olympic peers this year, with his Push The Limit game for Kinect already on shelves. Will we see Bradley Wiggins grace the cover of next year's Tour De France game? Will Jess Ennis and Mo Farah be running alongside us in the next Kinect Sports? Whoever is next on the podium, it's a good bet that gamers will be the winners.

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