Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Wii) Preview
Posted by Ramon Aranda on 08.09.2008
E3: Hands/Feet-on: We jump on our virtual snowboard and hit the slopes.
My legs are sore and I love it!
When the Wii Balance Board was first revealed, skateboarding and snowboarding games were the first to come up in discussion about what else the board could be used for. Ubisoft was apparently one of those publishers who was thinking the same thing. Having recently announced Shaun White Snowboarding for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the Wii version was shown off and demonstrated at E3. I have to say that with all of the great games at the Ubisoft room, this was one of the titles I was looking forward to the most.
So the first thing I did of course was hopped onto the board as I was told to get comfortable. I was explained that I would have to lean on my toes or my heels to right and left. I was then off down a slope for a few minutes just to get the hang of the controls. It definitely takes a little while to get used to it but that's just fine as it's a new control scheme and it shouldn't necessarily be easy. To go down the slope faster, I just leaned forward and leaning backward made me slow down. Believe me, you'll hit the snow face first a few times until you figure out the sensitivity of it all. If you want to jump up on a rail, you'll automatically do it when you get close to it. Then you get into a balanced-based game. If you push your feet down in a thrusting motion towards the board, you'll jump and to do spins in the air, you put weight on your heels or toes. It took me a few tries but then I suddenly started getting the hang of it without noticing at first.
This is one of those games where your body completely takes over and you're not thinking about button presses or puzzles. After about 10 minutes or so, my legs felt like they had gone through a good workout. You WILL feel like you were doing some work…trust me.
The game can also be played with the Wii Remote and a completely different development team worked on it. It does work, but frankly you need to play with the balance board to enjoy it most.
As for the game's features, the player goes through a single player mode where you're chasing Shaun White since you're chasing him around, hoping to challenge him at different locations. You'll find yourself inside a busted up van in between as you travel to different events and you can use different characters within your ride. Not much information was given about the multiplayer aspect but you'll be able to taking turns on the Wii Balance Board as well as using the other control schemes. There will be co-op as well and include 4-player split screen play.
The game looked pretty good – more or less a more polished look than EA's SSX Blur which looked good on its own.
I'd have to say that this became one of those games, during the demo, that I found myself wanting to play more of. The better I got at pulling off tricks and controlling my board, the more I wanted to keep trying to improve my score. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one and as soon as we get more information on multiplayer and other features, we'll be sure to pass it along. Shaun White Snowboarding for the Wii looks like a winner in the making.
So the first thing I did of course was hopped onto the board as I was told to get comfortable. I was explained that I would have to lean on my toes or my heels to right and left. I was then off down a slope for a few minutes just to get the hang of the controls. It definitely takes a little while to get used to it but that's just fine as it's a new control scheme and it shouldn't necessarily be easy. To go down the slope faster, I just leaned forward and leaning backward made me slow down. Believe me, you'll hit the snow face first a few times until you figure out the sensitivity of it all. If you want to jump up on a rail, you'll automatically do it when you get close to it. Then you get into a balanced-based game. If you push your feet down in a thrusting motion towards the board, you'll jump and to do spins in the air, you put weight on your heels or toes. It took me a few tries but then I suddenly started getting the hang of it without noticing at first.
As for the game's features, the player goes through a single player mode where you're chasing Shaun White since you're chasing him around, hoping to challenge him at different locations. You'll find yourself inside a busted up van in between as you travel to different events and you can use different characters within your ride. Not much information was given about the multiplayer aspect but you'll be able to taking turns on the Wii Balance Board as well as using the other control schemes. There will be co-op as well and include 4-player split screen play.
