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Wii

North America

Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip

by Jonathan Metts - July 27, 2008, 9:10 pm EDT
Total comments: 11

Hit the slopes on your Balance Board.

I should start by noting that the Wii version of Shaun White Snowboarding is a completely different game than its Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3 counterpart. It has a different story, different controls, and different gameplay. Most notably, it lacks the "open world" structure and online integration of the other version and instead focuses on races and trick runs.

Balance Board controls are a huge part of the game, but Ubisoft is including an option to use the Wii Remote that they claim works just as well. However, I only got to play with the Balance Board, and it's obviously the more appealing method if you have the requisite hardware. There are three sensitivity levels for the Balance Board to help everyone play well, from beginners to experts. You stand on the board sideways and control it just like a real snowboard. Shifting towards your heels will turn one way, while going "toe-side" will turn the other way. You tuck in for acceleration by leaning towards the screen and slow down by leaning away. In real life, I'm a skier, not a snowboarder, but the basic elements of shifting your weight are common to both styles and definitely feel realistic in the game. I was carving up fresh tracks with ease after a minute or so of practice.

You jump by pumping your legs (actually jumping on the Balance Board is not advised), while grab tricks are performed by holding down certain buttons on the Wii Remote and shifting your weight in the air. This is a fairly realistic snowboarding game, certainly more so than the SSX series, so it's challenging to pull off even simple tricks during most jumps. After several minutes of steering and jumping, you'll probably feel a mild burn in your legs and core. It's not as taxing as real snowboarding, but the game's producer told us that it will feel like serious exercise if you play for an extended length of time.

The development team credits Nintendo's 1080° series for some of their inspiration, such as the choice to feature a track-based structure rather than one continuous mountain. Races will include around eight boarders (that number isn't final yet), and a robust physics system governs collisions. In other words, part of the racing strategy is to slam into the other boarders without falling yourself, and that depends on relative speed, angle, etc.

Another key mode is multiplayer. The game supports up to four players in split screen, although Nintendo "currently supports" only a single Balance Board per system, so your friends will have to use the alternate controls. Otherwise, you can take turns on the Balance Board and race each others' ghosts. The dev team is aiming to make these tracks interesting enough to be played over and over again with your friends. For now, we're not sure how many tracks will be in the game.

Although the "next-gen" version of Shaun White Snowboarding better recreates the social and exploration aspects of real snowboarding, the Wii version makes a compelling argument for itself with very smooth, enjoyable Balance Board control. If you already have Wii Fit and enjoy jibbing over sick pow, this game seems like a good bet.

Talkback

Flames_of_chaosLukasz Balicki, Staff AlumnusJuly 28, 2008

With the balance board in mind do you think that Ubisoft (or whatever developer is doing this) is doing a good job on the game? How do you think it compares to well SSX Blur since it's the only other snowboarding game on Wii? If you didn't play Blur how does it compare  to a SSX or 1080 game in terms of fun and general gameplay mechanics and if it's aiming for a realistic experience or a over the top experience.

It's closer to 1080 than SSX, as I said in the article.  I can't yet say how it compares overall because the game was so incomplete at E3.  But I have to say that the 360/PS3 version is much more appealing to me because it focuses on the casual, fun side of snowboarding.  The whole point of mountain sports for most people is that you can make your way down the mountain any way you like.  There's no judging or scoring but lots of exploration and friendly competition with your friends to see who can get down the fastest or do the craziest stuff.  The 360/PS3 version has a chance to capture all of these elements with its open, continuous mountains and online features, which are similar to Burnout Paradise.  The Wii version is much more of a track-based racing game like 1080, which doesn't interest me as much.

shammackJuly 28, 2008

Quote from: Jonnyboy117

But I have to say that the 360/PS3 version is much more appealing to me because it focuses on the casual, fun side of snowboarding.  The whole point of mountain sports for most people is that you can make your way down the mountain any way you like.  There's no judging or scoring but lots of exploration and friendly competition with your friends to see who can get down the fastest or do the craziest stuff.

How can the serious gamers tolerate such a challenge-free non-game on the 360/PS3?

EnnerJuly 28, 2008

lol I guess they'll have to make up their own challenges.

AVJuly 28, 2008

few questions

1) How is the sense of speed
2) Any chance Nintendo might include Balance Board with this game? ( I don't want Wii Fit )
3) Does the game make itself more immersive or is it just better controls but gameplay itself doesn't do anything to make it more real

vuduJuly 28, 2008

So no online functionality in the Wii version?  That sucks.  If nothing else Ubi should at least let you upload/download ghosts to race against.

Quote from: shammack

How can the serious gamers tolerate such a challenge-free non-game on the 360/PS3?

You're trolling.  Stop.  I'm not a serious gamer but I am serious about this.

Quote from: Mr.

1) How is the sense of speed
2) Any chance Nintendo might include Balance Board with this game? ( I don't want Wii Fit )
3) Does the game make itself more immersive or is it just better controls but gameplay itself doesn't do anything to make it more real

1) Good.
2) I asked.  Answer was: "That is not going to happen."
3) What is the what?

Quote from: vudu]

It's pretty sad.  The producer demoing the game said a lot of the fun in multiplayer would be taking turns on the same track to see who can get the highest score.  So, I asked if there would be online leaderboards to help you do this remotely.  He said they would love to do that but it's not going to happen in this game.

AVJuly 29, 2008

Quote from: Jonnyboy117

Quote from: shammack

How can the serious gamers tolerate such a challenge-free non-game on the 360/PS3?

You're trolling.  Stop.  I'm not a serious gamer but I am serious about this.

Quote from: Mr.

1) How is the sense of speed
2) Any chance Nintendo might include Balance Board with this game? ( I don't want Wii Fit )
3) Does the game make itself more immersive or is it just better controls but gameplay itself doesn't do anything to make it more real

1) Good.
2) I asked.  Answer was: "That is not going to happen."
3) What is the what?

Quote from: vudu]

It's pretty sad.  The producer demoing the game said a lot of the fun in multiplayer would be taking turns on the same track to see who can get the highest score.  So, I asked if there would be online leaderboards to help you do this remotely.  He said they would love to do that but it's not going to happen in this game.

I probably said my 3rd question odd.

Are they making the game more immersive than traditional snowboarding games? Or are they just using the balance board for immersion.

Mirror's edge is damn impressive so maybe EA could do something similar to that for this game and make it really immersive.  Maybe they can have a balance board mode where they take off junk like music and hud and make it more like mirror's edge.

I couldn't get a feel for how immersive the game is during the demo, sorry.  And EA is not making this game, Ubisoft is.

Playing with the balance board with no HUD would be cool, but it wouldn't be that immersive without it being first-person, which would probably require removing the trick system.

I don't remember any HUD in the demo, but that's the kind of thing they could very well add before the game is finished.  Let's hope not, as I don't think you would need one except maybe a position indicator for racing.

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Genre Sports
Developer Ubisoft
Players1 - 4

Worldwide Releases

na: Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip
Release Nov 17, 2008
PublisherUbisoft
RatingEveryone 10+
eu: Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip
Release Nov 14, 2008
PublisherUbisoft
Rating3+
aus: Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip
Release Nov 13, 2008
PublisherUbisoft
RatingGeneral
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