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| From Shaun White Road Trip Screenshots |
In Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip, you, along with several snowboarding pals, travel across the globe to conquer slopestyle courses, big air jumps, half pipes and more. At each location, there are several events and related challenges that you must complete to unlock levels or gain more snowboarding friends. The challenges aren’t too complex, some require you to earn a certain amount of points while others are time trials or collection tasks.
I have unlocked 3 locations so far and I am slightly disappointed in the challenges. The game lacks trick oriented challenges and silly challenges like the ones you would see in the Tony Hawk games. Because of the game’s simplicity, you can probably finish the majority of challenges with relative ease.
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| From Shaun White Road Trip Screenshots |
The first few events give you tips on using the board, but I must admit that it didn’t help me too much. It took me awhile to get use to the controls, sometimes the board seemed too sensitive (you can adjust this in the settings) or perhaps I am not coordinated enough and lack balance. Nonetheless, the more I played the more I got use to the controls and consequently the more I enjoyed the game. Don’t expect much from the instruction booklet. It’s just a series of foot patterns with no detail on what specific trick is associated with what position on the balance board. I am novice snowboarder and on the east coast we don’t get too much natural powder, so I can’t speak much on whether or not the game is true to real life snowboarding. I do feel as though my stance and movement on the balance board was very similar to how I would move on an actual snowboard. I didn’t feel like I needed to exaggerate my intent while playing the game.
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| From Shaun White Road Trip Screenshots |
As a Shaun White fan, I would have bought the game even without balance board compatibility, but I honestly think the game would be boring without it. My expectations for this game were really high; I expected the game play to be more detailed and inventive. And maybe this is unfair, but I did expect to play a game that took the features that made the Tony Hawk and SSX games great and evolved them into an even more immersive action sports game experience. SWSB does shine with its use of the balance board though. Once you get use to the controls, playing with the balance board is fun, interactive and exciting. SWSB is nowhere close to complexity and detail as the SSX Snowboarding Franchise but it is a great compliment to Wii Fit especially if you are looking to do something else with your board besides yoga poses.
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| From Shaun White Road Trip Screenshots |
Pros:
- Balance board controls do have a learning curve but make the game worth playing
- Game simplicity will make it popular with younger audiences.
- Lots of multiplayer games and options
Cons:
- No personalization features. Can’t dress your snowboarder or pick out your gear.
- No park or course creator. I would love to be able to create my own slopestyle course.
- On timed levels, there’s no onscreen map to tell you were you are in proximity to the finish line. Really annoying!
- Not enough challenges per event. Each event has at most two goals.
- Graphics and text are a little hard to read if you are far away from the TV.
