Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins iPhone | Exceptional Snowboarding Game

shaun white snowboarding origins iphone game

Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins [rating: 4/5]

Shaun White may have started snowboarding at the age of 9 years to become a prominent competitor in professional snowboarding, but with Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins iPhone game you can master snowboarding by simply touching and titling your iPhone!

Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins for iPhone is the latest game from Advanced Mobile Applications Ltd. and it is totally addictive. The common problem with many sports game is that there are too many actions or tricks required that you get involved in mastering the controls rather than enjoying the game. AMA (Advanced Mobile Applications) has done an incredible job in making this snowboarding game enjoyable with simple controls, realistic graphics and great music.

After the launch of iPhone 3GS and the latest iPod touch we have noticed that iPhone game developers have significantly improved the detail and quality of 3D graphics. Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins satisfies the thrill and excitement of every extreme sports fan with its eye-catching snow covered mountains in a free-roam atmosphere.

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The object of the game is to achieve a high score as you hit the powder with your board by performing tricks and completing various races in four countries – Chile, Japan, Spain and USA. Current version features four game modes and four in-game characters (Mats, Gordon, Mario and Alex). In ‘Free Ride’ mode you can choose to race in any country and set a new high score, the other three modes are basically challenger modes (Challenge yourself, Challenge a friend and Challenge the world best player) in which you race against the your own or the challengers ghost.

The game does not offer any true multilayer ability (neither bluetooth nor Wi-fi) and AMA has tried to fill this gap by offering the option to play against the ghost data. Racing against ghost data of your challenger to a certain extent adds a competitive edge to the game however, it cannot completely eliminate the need for multilayer capabilities.

As you select the country and start snowboarding, you have to try and perform as many complex tricks as possible and collect coins to achieve a high score. The game features over 50 different snowboarding tricks (must watch!) which you can try by performing combinations of grabs, spins and slides. You steer by titling your iPhone/iPod touch left or right and to gain instant velocity you can press and hold the boost icon to accelerate. To perform the various grabs you have to tap different spots on the virtual board, to perform rotations use the virtual pad and tilt your device to balance yourself while performing a grind.

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In order to complete the trick while in air you need to make sure that your speed is just right so that you can align your board parallel to the track for safe landing. The controls are very responsive however, the lack of touch controls to steer does add up to some frustration while performing a grind or crossing the gates.

You can easily challenge your friends, share your latest achievements via Twitter or Facebook  and keep a track of global high scores with OpenFeint integration. If you have been a huge fan of Shaun White (must watch!) then you will be excited to watch an exclusive real-life video footage of Shaun White captured in a top secret mission by accessing the ‘bonus’ option. In the settings option you can control the tilt sensitivity and volume of music and sound effects.

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The gameplay was quite satisfying but it still lacks in depth. We would have liked to see a career mode and time trial mode. In the current version you can neither customize the look of your game character nor the snowboard. We also found that the game lacks mini-games which could be extremely helpful to master different tricks.

Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins is an exceptional extreme sports game for iPhone and iPod touch but just falls short of being a winner because of the lack of depth in its gameplay. If AMA continues to develop and update this game with the above features it would certainly make Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins for iPhone a must have extreme sports game.

Price: $4.99 (iTunes Link)

The Good

  • Detailed 3D graphics
  • Amazing sound track and realistic wind sound effects
  • Easy to perform tricks

The Not So Good

  • Lacks Career Mode, time trial mode and mini games
  • Cannot customize the character or the board
  • Lacks multiplayer over bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Reviewed by: Ravin

Shaun White Snowboarding: Origins iPhone – Official Game Trailer

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2 Comments on “Shaun White Snowboarding : Origins iPhone | Exceptional Snowboarding Game”

  1. iphonegamerblog

    Our site just reviewed this game and found that it can be fun but lacks many of the features people would expect from a snowboarding game like this. Read on for specifics iphonegamerblog

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