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Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip Review
12 out of 15
Forever ruining snowboarding with a standard controller.
Date: Monday, December 01, 2008
Author: Brandon "Melon 720" Cackowski-Schnell

Unfortunately the game only supports one balance board at a time; however this limitation also brings about one of the game's most fun multiplayer modes: Hot Seat. In Hot Seat, up to four people compete against one another with the best run recorded as a ghost that the other players all race against, taking turns on the balance board. The highest scorer gets to take a break, watching everyone else try and best them, until ultimately they fall and try to regain their crown. Co-op is also available, as is split-screen multiplayer, however both of those modes require at least one person to use the Wiimote, so there could be a bit of an imbalance. The only thing marring the multiplayer is the fact that additional runs beyond the starting mountain in Canada aren't unlocked unless you've made progress in co-op. It's a bummer that all of your work in single player doesn't yield fruit in multiplayer, but at least co-op is fun.

The game's aesthetics matches that of the riders, with a cartoony, laid back, but stylish appearance. Runs are sparsely populated but are still nice to look at and what the runs lack in competition, they make up for it with wildlife. Watch out for those llamas. The frame rate never stutters and even though the game keeps you from going off of the run, the surrounding vistas makes it so that you never feel constrained. Little touches such as the speed blur when tucking, your rider and camera getting covered with snow when you wipe out, and the faint, surrounding effect on your rider when you've activated your boost power all add up to give the game plenty of personality. The game boasts an impressively wide selection of music too, switching from Modest Mouse to Incubus to Bob Dylan before landing on "Don't Fear the Reaper".

Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip is the perfect example of how to do games right on the Wii. Sure, you can't model every individual snowflake, but you can still provide a great looking, stylish game. Motion controls are present, not as an arbitrary add-on, but as a fundamentally different way of controlling the game. Most of all, it's an absolute blast. While no one will confuse riding the balance board with snowboarding down Telluride, there are still plenty of thrills and big mountain fun to be had.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .

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