Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip

The Wii Balance Board is bundled with the Wii Fit game and is used to perform all kinds of fitness activities, but it’s also ideal for sports games, specifically skiing, snowboarding or anything else using your feet.

Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip makes full use of the balance board to create a fun simulation of the snow-bound extreme sport with the license of the world snowboarding champion. It’s not identical to the real thing, of course, but it is a lot closer than twiddling the analogue sticks on a game pad.

But while it may not be the next best thing to an expensive skiing holiday, Shaun White is bags of fun. It’s fast and easy to get into, with a forgiving level of difficult that allows you to plummet down mountains at a pleasing speed and pull off fancy tricks without constantly toppling over.

The visuals are a pleasant surprise, with a lovely chunky cartoon style and beautiful locations that work extremely well despite the Wii’s relatively underpowered graphics hardware.

There are three events to compete in – racing, tricks and collecting. All of the three contain plenty of jumps and opportunities for pulling stunts, and there are a variety of achievements to collect along the way.

Verdict: 73%

Shaun White Snowboard is bright, colourful, fast and lots of fun. It isn’t as deep or realistic as some snowboarding games, but makes up for this with its peppy cartoon style. It is much better when played using a Wii Balance Board, though.