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Shaun White Skateboarding
Shaun White is moving over to video game skateboarding, but his fall
title developed by Ubisoft Montreal is anything but another board with
wheels.
Unlike his snowboarding game, Shaun White
skateboarding isn't just about giving you a bunch of challenges tied to
locations. In fact, the development team is thinking a little outside
the skateboarding box you've become accustomed to over the years in
other series like Skate or Tony Hawk.
The key to the game (coming
for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii) is that while you're skating through the
environment, you can transform the world at designated spots. Start
sliding a rail and you can shape it anyway you want – while you're still
on it – with the left analog stick. Or perhaps you'll create a launch
ramp out of the ground so you can ollie and reach a part of the level
previous unaccessible. Alternately, that same ramp can be lowered to
take you underground so you can skate a short subway segment.
You can shape many of the game's rails in real time with the left analog stick
While Shaun White's levels contain the normal
challenge-based objectives you find in most games, re-shaping your
environment is what it's all about, and you'll be doing more than having
fun busting tricks – you'll be bringing hope to a downtrodden city. At
the start of the game, Shaun White's world is controlled by an
organization called The Ministry, which has sapped the life out of
everything (you even find out they've kidnapped Shaun!) Your job is to
skate through the game's different districts and open them up by
performing tricks, terra-forming the landscape, and getting rid of The
Ministry's propaganda. You'll turn an ordinary fountain into a bowl,
unlock new areas, or make a skate shop pop up
out of a plaza as you pull off tricks and use the game's shape
abilities.
As a skater, you'll even bring life back to the world
– similar to The Saboteur. The more you pull off tricks, the more color
and energy returns to your surroundings. By the end of a level, not
only have you transformed its architecture, but you've also changed the
lives of the people in it. Grey pedestrians will spring up and skate
with you, trees and grass are more abundant, and graffiti will splash
the normally dull concrete. You can also bring in your friends for
either co-op or competitive play.
A level before you start skating...
...and after
Unfortunately, we didn't get our
hands on Shaun White Skateboarding's trick system, which will come in
two flavors. One is a simplified, one-button control scheme, while the
other involves pushing the right analog stick in one of eight
directions. Later on in the game, a modifier button can be added so you
can access over 80 tricks (including Shaun's own "Armadillo" trick).
The
skateboarding market has become crowded and predictable, and it's cool
that Ubisoft is taking a different tack with Shaun White Skateboarding.
Hopefully the game's concepts come together and it can give players a
slightly different experience.
Take a look at this cool teaser trailer for the game
[View:http://gameinformer.com/games/shaun_white_skateboarding/m/shaun_white_skateboarding_media/346344.aspx:610:343]
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