by Kristen Furia

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: December 06, 2010

Ubisoft is one of the powerhouses of game producers in the world. They recently released Shaun White Snowboarding and the reviews it received were mediocre at best. This game was developed in close collaboration with snowboarding expert Shaun White himself. Of course, the avid gamer that I am, I had to find out if the reviews I read were accurate.

When I first loaded the game I was presented with the option to customize my avatar. There were over 500 items to make my character unique. I felt the board selection was minimal but the clothing options were abundant for both male and female players. You can customize your board, boots, bindings, jackets, pants, goggles, and hats. I am keeping an eye out for some downloadable content with hope for more boards to select from.

After your character creation you are thrust into a vast snowboarding open world without limits. I would have preferred to earn my lift tickets to harder slopes but you are given free access to all the game has to offer without ever having to work for it. To make up for this, they use a focus system that increases your skills as you collect coins from the different mountains. Each set of coins offer an increase to a different ability and the coins get harder to obtain. The first set of coins gives you a power check ability that allows you to break through obstacles in the game. The second set gives you a boost to your speed and the third gives you your big air ability.

The game also has a quick menu that uses the directional buttons to select different options. Pressing up on the directional pad will open the online menu allowing you to join hosts, disconnect, or even boot a character that is causing mayhem for other players. The right directional button opens up your chat menu for online play. You can either set up a private chat room or turn off this feature all together. The left button navigates you to a music option where you can select play lists from a variety of different music genres. Last but not least the down button is my personal favorite of quick menu options. This allows you to set markers for warping to your favorite jumps and is especially handy for obtaining those hard to reach coins. If you miss them the first time around, you can warp back to where you started and try, try again. This button also gives the ability to start special challenges during online play. You can make bets and wager your game money with friends to see who the best boarder of all is.

There are 4 different mountains to explore. You can use the ski lift to get to the peak of the mountains or for the more adventurous there is a helicopter ready to fly you to the top. I think the ski lift offers a more graphical experience and even allows you to jump off when you see any area of the mountain you would like to shred. The graphics are breathtaking and there are a multitude of camera angles and views for you to choose from.

Shaun White Snowboarding also offers online multiplayer game play for up to 16 players. There are 3 types of challenges exclusively for this online gaming: King of the Hill, Rat Race, and Betting Challenges. You can also pound your friends with snowballs if the mood strikes you.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate Shaun White Snowboarding a 7. I would have liked to see more terrain instead of only four mountains. Again, I hope that Ubisoft will release some DLC in the near future with additional slopes and items. In comparison to Coolboarders, released back in 1999 for the Play Station One, I was disappointed to see that Ubisoft and Shaun White did not bring more to the genre.

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