Shaun White Boarding Road Trip

Snowboard in the warmth of your lounge! (Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip (Wii)) by JJJJ

The Balance Board which comes as standard with Nintendo's 'Wii Fit' has potential uses in many computer games, and perhaps the most obvious (due to the fact that you can stand on it) is in the skateboard / snowboard genre.

Costing £17.99 from play.com, 'Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip' takes full advantage of the board - but does this make the computer game an essential purchase, or is the experience based on a gimmick?

There have been other titles which have utilised the same control method; 'Family Ski' which I previously reviewed, used the Balance Board to represent the Skiing experience, but failed as a game due to it's jagged graphics and slow, repetitive gameplay. Where Shaun White beats Family Ski (apart from on the graphical front), is in its 'trick system'. As well as merely snowboarding down the slopes, you can perform a series of outrageous moves from the multitude of ramps which line the downhill courses. A light jumping motion on the Balance Board will send your boarder even higher into the air, where you can experiment with nose-grabs, tail-grabs and a variety of other tricks. You can even perform 'grinds', where you glide on rails and lines of rocks, which is great fun.

Steering is done simply by placing your weight from the heels to the balls of your feet, which equates to left and right movement. Putting more weight on the front foot will increase your boarders speed, whilst back foot pressure will slow down your character. This control method certainly makes the game a lot of fun - and I think it does give a feeling of actually being on the slopes.

The single-player mode of the game places the player in a selected country (starting in Canada) with a range of challenges to complete. These generally involve collecting tokens on the way down the courses, attaining a certain score (through performing tricks), and racing against the clock. Once you have achieved a certain number of these challenges, you can progress to another country in order to take part in more of the same whilst unlocking new characters. This fairly straightforward gameplay style can be a little repetitive, but it is still fun traveling the world, seeing what the new courses entail.

Shaun White features a few different multiplayer modes which are fairly fun to play. One of which allows four players to enjoy the game in either a co-operative or competitive split-screen mode. Disappointingly, there is no online play, which generally comes as standard nowadays with next-gen titles.

Graphically, the game is very good, and probably pushes the Wii to its hardware limits. The snow-spray effects are especially impressive, and send a mist of powdery snow onto the camera lens each time your boarder falls over. There is also very little pop-up - which means you can see a long way into the distance as you hurtle down the slopes. Another nice touch is the addition of wildlife on the piste, for example, shooting down a mountain is even more fun when accompanied by a huge galloping moose!

Audio wise, Shaun White Snowboarding is pretty good. Following on the tradition of boarding games having excellent soundtracks, this title doesn't disappoint. Included amongst the games numerous songs are; Blue Öyster Cult's classic 'Don't Fear the Reaper', Audioslave's 'Gasoline', Gil Scott-Heron's 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', Faithless' iconic dance number 'We Come1', plus many more tunes which add to the excitement of the snowboarding experience.

In conclusion, Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip represents a very good gaming experience, and is definitely the best title which utilises the Wii Fit Balance Board to date. This isn't just because of the novel control method, as playing simply with the Wii remote is great fun also.

On the downside, the game is quite short and has little depth beyond the unlocking of new courses, which won't take the experienced gamer that long. However, while it lasts, Shaun White is really good fun and I definitely recommend it whether you own the Balance Board or not. For adrenaline-junkies everywhere, give this one a go.

Summary: Good Snowboarding experience (www.dooyoo.co.uk)