Shaun White Snowboarding Review

6.5 / 10 Banzai!s

TheĀ 1080Ā series fromĀ NintendoĀ andĀ SSXĀ byĀ EAĀ have long marked the best snowboarding games the market has to offer for console gaming.Ā UbisoftĀ decided to throw their hat in the ring, find the biggest name they could in the Winter Olympic and Winter X Games gold medalist Shaun White, and releasedĀ Shaun White SnowboardingĀ in November 2008. But could the game live up to the hype? Letā€™s find out!

I made three attempts to play this game, the first being when I purchased it in 2010 after my first snowboarding trip. The learning curve proved too steep and I quickly became disinterested in the game. The second time was in 2013. I earned a few trophies, but again it was hard to keep momentum and I gave up. Finally, whenĀ UbisoftĀ announced that they were going to close the servers the second week of August 2014, I decided I would give it one more try to get as many online trophies as I could. Mission accomplished, and with an extra bonus month of server time, I was able to get all the online trophies.

Once you get past the learning curve, however, you can really have fun with the game.

Itā€™s an open-world ride with plenty to do down four mountains: Park City, Europe, Japan and Alaska (five if you have the Target Edition, and six with the DLC for the British Columbia slopes.)

Shredders will know the eventsā€“Jibbing (riding on rails, pipes, anything that isnā€™t snow), Air Tricking (going off jumps, spinning, backflipping), Slopestyle (a combination of the two), Boardercross (a race now known in Olympic events as Snowboard Cross) and the most famous, the Halfpipe.

Players can compete in these to earn money and respect, but there are also collect missions and ā€œShaunā€™s Quest,ā€ where you find 12 coins scattered three to a mountain. Bronze Euros, Yen, and Silver Dollars will earn you three super powers, enabling you to collect the Gold Crown coins to unlock the Triple Slam, a series of three events you must win to compete against Shaun himself.

Shaun White Snowboarding ReviewThe best part about the game is the controls. The overblown physics and button layout are excellently done, and you usually know if and why you crash. Quadruple backflips are possible, and Iā€™ve even landed an 1800, which wouldnā€™t be humanly possible. So the game has a lot of fun moments in it.

Letā€™s start with the licensed music for the faults, since itā€™s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I liked the music, but not everybody will. There are also a limited number of songs, so they become repetitive. Quickly, I might add, as you grind your way to ten million respect points for the OMG! trophy. I wonder who chose the songs; if they were chosen by Shaun White himself then I would rate the music higher; if they were randomly chosen byĀ Ubisoft, wellā€¦

Speaking of trophies, most of the skill based ones are related to obtaining a certain number of points during tricks. They are certainly doable, but again require inhuman numbers. Online actually works in your favor, as only eight races need to be done with other players; the rest can be done solo (as long as your session is online, and you reach the leaderboards.)

The graphics are not exactly what you would expect from a 7th generation game, but withĀ PS2Ā andĀ WiiĀ versions I wouldnā€™t expect much upscaling for theĀ PS3Ā orĀ 360.

Also missing from the version I played is perhaps the most interesting featureā€“theĀ WiiĀ version allows you to use theĀ Wii FitĀ board as a snowboard. Iā€™m not sure how well that would work in terms of the tricks, but Iā€™m tempted to find another copy of the game to find out. If and when I do, I will add to this review.

Shaun White Snowboarding ReviewFinally, with the impending closure of the servers, any completionist or person who wants to play with their friends may not be out of luck. You wonā€™t be able to go online, but there is a LAN option that would allow you to play against your friends, like an old-school game party.

Overall the game is good for what it isā€“an alternative to the other snowboarding games available, and backed by the biggest name in snowboarding. The controls are very good once you are past the learning curve. Unfortunately, all but the most hardcore of snowboarding fans, Shaun White fans, or Trophy Hunters will have the patience required to get to a high enough skill level to truly enjoy the game.

 

Fun: 7.5/10 (Once you know what you are doing)

Graphics: 5.5/10

Sound: 7/10

Replay Value: 7/10

Trophy Difficulty: 8/10 (100% might be unobtainable after servers are closed)

 

written by Ben Adkins

Shaun White Snowboarding Trophy Guide

Shaun White Snowboarding Trophy Guide. Difficulty: *** Ā A snowboarding game across six different mountains in a variety of events. Though the game possesses a steep learning curve, the trophies are doable with some time and skill.

Game Name Difficulty Trophies Developer Country Bronze Silver Gold Online DLC
Shaun White Snowboarding *** 48 Ubisoft Montreal Canada 36 8 3 7 0

Shaun White Snowboarding

Shaun White Snowboarding is a snowboarding sports game in which players race and perform stunts down six different mountains, competing against NPCs and eventually a digital rendering of American professional snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White.

Players compete in a variety of events, including Jibbing, Air Tricking, Slopestyle, Boardercross, and Halfpipe, earning both money and respect which allows them to upgrade their player-character. An online multiplayer mode is also included.

Shaun White Snowboarding's PS3 version received lukewarm reviews, with an average score of 64%, praised for its overall fun, but criticized for its lack of presentation and ho-hum graphics.

For more information, check out our Shaun White Snowboarding Review.

It should be noted that Ubisoft announced the closure of their online servers on August 8 2014. As of the time adding this title to our game database, the servers still remain active, on borrowed time. The game has 7 online trophies, which will become unobtainable if/when the servers finally do go offline.

Aside from that, the most difficult challenge will be learning the controls. Once you've mastered the learning curve, many of the trophies can be rather easy to collect, if not simply time-consuming, with the Platinum earned in around 20-30 hours.

As we mentioned earlier, at the time of uploading this game to our database, the online servers are on borrowed time, and could be cut at any time. As a result, we recommend getting those 7 online trophies out of the way as soon as you can. Unfortunately, you'll need to unlock some challenges before you can play them online. This means, doing so should be a priority.

First start by exploring the areas and collecting tokens for each map, while getting used to the controls. The learning curve can be steep for some people, but once you've gotten the hang of it, you shouldn't have too much problem.

Once you're confident enough, go ahead and start working through the challenges and missions. After you've gotten through and everything's unlocked, don't worry about mopping-up just yet. Head online and start working on those 7 online trophies. Many of them don't require you to win, simply play different challenges on different mountains. But the Mecha Shredzilla trophy requires a total of 1 million respect points, and will take some grinding if you didn't achieve it while unlocking the others.

After all that's done, you can go ahead and start mopping up any remaining offline trophies you're still missing.