ESPN X-Games always comes under fire when it comes to their video games and what they do with them. With the skateboarding title, you took control of some top name skaters and rolled them through several lush environments with standard tricks in order to earn licenses to run to the next level. In X-Games Snowboarding, you're no longer on the asphalt, but on the snowy slopes of a huge mountain. While the premise sounds cool, the environments are huge, problems start from the get go in the way of stiff control, lack of tricks and a menu interface that doesn't make much sense let alone is it any fun! Giving you control of several real to life snowboarders, you race down the hill through several different events, all of which are on a pay to play basis.
The game starts out with you creating a snowboarder from a collection of pre-made computer generated characters. Each one has the same moves and the same boards, so there isn't much that you need to worry about with your created character other than its gender and what it wears. From here, you go to the lodge and interact with some stick people {I'm not kidding} to sign up for different competitions and photo shoots to gain extra cash! However, you'll find that interacting with the different sticks is a pain in the ass, and getting to the event in question is easy enough, but the amount of challenge here is so mis-balanced that anyone with experience in a snow boarding game or otherwise will find that it takes damn near precision timing and a will of iron to complete.
When you get into the game, you'll find that the tricks are limited in what you can do, and your character doesn't move or feel real to life like the game is supposed to be. With several different events that revolve around downhill racing, half pipe boarding and trick styling. Through these events, you can take home the gold, and then earn money to buy new boards, new boots and new clothing for your character, but none of them really do anything to change the character attributes! Actually playing through the events is a chore in a half because the races and events are geared so the computer wins just about every one of them until you get enough experience in playing to be able to match the multi-thousand point scores that you need to win.
Control is a huge factor here, and this title just doesn't have it. The boarder moves stiffly and unresponsively with the way the boarder pulls off tricks, and more than once, you'll find that your boarder falls off the side of the mountain, simply because he doesn't jump quite high enough! The tricks are pulled off with a combination of button presses and jump timing, but it doesn't seem to come off smoothly enough to make a difference. The extreme difficulty of actually directing your boarder down the hill is what will really get you in the end, because in most cases, precision direction is needed and you just don't have the response that you need to cover it!
Visually speaking, X-Games Snow Boarding is a disappointing display of muted colors and plenty of image break up. In most cases you'll find that the mountain has a tendincy to pop up in places, with the ever present fog effect obscuring what is actually the drop off the stage! The characters look stiff and poorly put together with a ton of detail that is both needed and sorely missing. Trick wise, there aren't any flashy tricks, nor are there any special effects or the sense of speed that you might want to see from a game that promotes downhill racing. Add onto this the lodge feature in which you have to interact with different characters to open up new events, and the fact that they are merely pencil drawings in the shape of triangles, and you'll find that there wasn't much thought or time put into the visual side of the game!
Audio wise, this title does have some impressive talent behind it with groups such as Primer 55, Goldfinger and the Long Beach Dub All Stars. However, twenty minutes into the game, you'll hear that the music sounds just as muted as the rest of the game, with several instances of the music cutting out altogether, or in some cases, just repeating itself! The sound effects are extremely minimal, being reserved to thuds into the ground and some sort of swishing sound that is supposed to be the board coming up off of the snow. All in all, you have a compliment of sound that doesn't go well together, and not only that, but the music doesn't seem to fit the mood of the game either, no matter what other Extreme Sports games have done!
This title is for die hard snow boarding fans only, and those who have a love of the X-Games will probably find this title slightly amusing. Anyone else though with a love for a good snow boarding game might want to look towards SSX for some high flying action and leave this one in the lodge. With poor looking visuals, partially decent sound and control that just plain sucks due to the lack of response, there isn't anything here that will impress, let alone drive anyone to buy this game or even rent it. Consider it a game of too little, too late and a down hill blast into mediocrity and stay away!
2/10
//KasketDarkfyre
