
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip
Tuck in.
Sorry about this, but if you've been hoping the Balance Board will bring a touch of realism to Road Trip, offering the genuine thrill of the slopes without the ensuing Swiss casualty department, or, even worse, paying the best part of a tenner for a glass of citron pressé, then I've got bad news. It's a novel and largely successful way to control the game, but standing on a plastic plank makes you feel like a snowboarder only as much as standing in a garage makes you feel like a car.
It's only a bit disappointing, however, because while the game falls slightly flat on its most obvious promise, it delivers in a handful of other ways. This is speedy, knockabout fun, with some pacy level design, and a very generous nature. Wii versions of multiformat games often conjure masochistic disenchantment, but this is easily the best Shaun White console experience of the bunch.
And - make sure you're sitting down - Road Trip is also the best-looking version. While the Wii can't hope to compete in terms of particle effects and textures, this is a game crafted for the platform, and it shows: the slopes are bold and cartoony and, along with the characters, give it a solidity far more enjoyable than the often glitchy, pop-in ridden efforts on the other consoles. The frame-rate's decent too.