Shaun White Skateboarding (Hands-On) (Wii) Preview

Introduced into a dull and bland skate world, it is Shaun’s job to skate lines to bolster the world into something more interesting. As you nail tricks in specific areas the world will morph and introduce brighter colours and paths for the player to skate. Predictably, the Wii version differs significantly from the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 iterations. The core gameplay mechanic is slightly different; in the HD versions, you can continue grinds even once you venture off rails, magically skating in mid-air to create some impressive new lines and explore the world more easily. Also, where the Wii version is presented rather cleanly initially, looking like a plain skate park, its counterparts feature a plain black and white world. The city in both versions is made more exciting and vibrant the more tricks you perform, becoming a skater’s paradise the more time goes on. Boring business men on phones become youths as life-injecting tricks are landed next to them, for example. Both versions have their areas unlocked in full from the get-go, but the 360/PS3 versions’ world-moulding appears to be more dynamic, the Wii’s seeming more pre-set.

That’s not to say that the Wii version is with charm. One of the expected differences is in the visuals, which come in the form of funky cel-shading in the Wii title, much like its predecessor, Shaun White Snowboarding. Another look to the past is its control method; once again, players will be able to either use the Wii Remote and Nunchuck or the Balance Board. On the Wii Remote, tricks are performed with presses of either A or B and a flick in the appropriate direction, with turning mapped to the analogue stick. Control on the Balance Board is much like the past title, with players leaning to turn, jumping and putting pressure on the correct parts of the Board to pull off tricks. If players are familiar with this type of control scheme, they will have no problem playing the game.

Gameplay and controls aside, there are a few niggling problems with Shaun White Skateboarding, the first being the levels themselves. With only a single level open to play around on, one issue became very apparent - it felt very empty and solitary. Whereas its bigger HD brothers had a certain amount of ‘busyness’ to them with pedestrians, cars and busy scenery, the Wii outing felt like something that could of been made in a Tony Hawk level editor, with surrounding scenery but little much else other than the skateable objects. Of course, this is far from the finished product, and Ubisoft will be adding more up until release, but it’s not hard to see where all the resources went when viewing the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions side-by-side.