IGN's feet-on Shaun White Snowboarding comparison

by Chris Greenhough { Nov 5th 2008 at 8:05PM }

The question has been on everybody's lips since Cammie Dunaway shed her shoes and opened Nintendo's E3 press conference with Shaun White Snowboarding: can the Balance Board provide a notable leap forward for the snowboarding genre? IGN has a comparison of the PS3/360 and Wii versions of Ubisoft's snowboarding title, but if you're too lazy to read, the short answer is: no.

At least, not in Shaun White Snowboarding. While IGN concedes using the Balance Board is "great fun carving down the slopes and doing spins off jumps," it ultimately "feels like a severely pared back snowboarding experience." In fact, Shaun White on Wii didn't impress IGN much at all, tying only one category (visuals/presentation) and losing the other four. Disappointing, because we know the Balance Board has tons of potential for this kind of thing.

Gallery: Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip

Tags: balance-board, shaun-white, shaun-white-snowboarding, sports, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jborah @ Nov 5th 2008 9:06PM

Unrelated to shaun white, but for the first time when i typed in wii fanboy a PS3 add came up as an Add! scandalous, i thought to myself

Chris Greenhough @ Nov 5th 2008 9:58PM

You have our word that the individual responsible for this will be shot at dawn. :o)

Aaron @ Nov 5th 2008 10:36PM

Yes, disappointing for sure. However, even in the arcade snowboarding cabinets with the metal rails to hold on to, and the big mechanical snowboard which 'slides' across the ground, it still felt to me like a shell of the real experience.

I can't imagine snowboarding on the Balance Board could come even close to being realistic. I still thought it would be fun, though. Either way, I have a Balance Board so it's a rental at least.

Abscissa @ Nov 6th 2008 2:21AM

I loved that arcade game. I actually liked it a lot better than real snowboarding. Yea, not much of a winter person here...

Russ Carroll @ Nov 5th 2008 11:51PM

Agree that it is a rental...and honestly it wouldn't be even that if it weren't for the balance board...regardless of the system. I've already got a couple of SSX games for the gamecube, honestly, I don't see any reason to get a new game like SSX unless there is something really new...the balance board is the only reason for me to consider playing another snowboarding game (and it's important to note that at no point did IGN suggest it was a really good game on the PS3/X360).