Shaun White Skateboarding (Xbox 360, 2010)

In Shaun White Skateboarding, you restore joy and freethinking to an oppressed and conformist world. One of the game's great ironies is that you do so by uncovering Stride Gum billboards in a city abounding with Wendy's fast-food restaurants. Blatant product placement is nothing new in skating games, but it sure sticks out when your entire purpose is to break free from a manufactured society. But the irony doesn't end there, as the game's latter half isn't really a skateboarding game at all, but is rather a puzzle platformer in which you spend large amounts of time figuring out how to get from point A to point B. Unfortunately, this shift in priorities comes at the expense of fun. When it focuses on skateboarding, the game is unspectacular but good fun; when it veers off the rails, it becomes slow and tedious. The tyrannical organization called The Ministry has removed all the color and soul from your beloved city. Ministry propaganda is everywhere, and the citizens wander about like mindless drones. Even worse? Shaun White is one of the few skilled enough to stand up to this regime, but he's been taken prisoner in one of the most elaborate constructs ever to house a menace to society. It's up to you and your helpers to free the minds of the populace and set Shaun loose. Is the plot kooky? Oh yes. Is it entertaining? Sometimes. There is some charm in the ridiculousness, mostly in the form of characters that guide you through the story mode. A squealing lady's man with long tresses and a gift for melodrama may come across as a caricature, but he's comical at least, as is an excitable skater who drops a few choice bits of profanity. (A few lines of dialogue may have you wondering how this game managed to skate by with a T rating.) The biggest problem with the story is that it doesn't go far enough. Sometimes it comes across as tongue-in-cheek camp; other times, it strikes a serious tone, as if trying to sell you on this ridiculous setup. Thus, it settles on a slightly uncomfortable middle ground that isn't realistic enough to inspire a connection to the world--or to Shaun, who functions only as an abstract plot device--or outrageous enough to wholeheartedly commit to its subject matter or visual style as fully as Jet Grind Radio, a game that did much more with a similar premise.

That middle-ground approach permeates all of Shaun White Skateboarding. To return color to this muted world, you do tricks to earn "flow." If you earn a proper amount of flow, your landings cause a wave of color to erupt from the ground below you. Ramps burst forth where there were none before, and that which was dull and gray takes on color. The brainwashed citizens snap out of their trance, riding skateboards of their own and crying out such inane lines as "You're making a difference!" and "Shake it like a picture!" ("You've got a nice long one!" is a memorable if still not particularly good one of these.") That isn't to say the world becomes vibrant, exactly. The color-restoration effect is neat for a while, and there's joy to be had when you feel like your tricks are having a tangible effect on your surroundings. You might now vert skate where you couldn't before, and cool sculptures may even rise from the ground. But the colors aren't strong and the art isn't exaggerated, so increasing your influence is more like spreading a mild tint than splashing the city with vivid hues.

This game is lots of fun ! If you like the tony hawks games series or the Jet Set Radio games series, then you will like this one. This one, I find is easier than tony hawks though. It is alot more fun than any tony hawks game I've played too. This game is very unique in that you can move where the rail goes that you are currently grinding on ! Like say you were grinding on a rail and you wanted to grind up to the top of one of the buildings. Then you would grind the rail and point the rail upwards as you are grinding on it !? It is such a fun game to play and so easy once you get the hang of it. When I first played this game about a week ago, I couldn't stop playing it for 8 hours ! That is how fun this game is ! The downfall is that I went to play multiplayer on it and found noone playing it yet ! But I have only had this game for like a week now. You can alos do all those crazy stunts that you can do in tony hawks and similar games like this one too ! Ollies, hand grabs, backflips, forwardflips, verts, nollies and kickflips to name a few ! Funnest part of this game is the fact that every time you play it, you can change it ! That means the next time you want to play the same level or area, you can go there and change all the changeable rails by placing them differently as you grind on them again ! There are so many areas or levels to play also ! This huge game should have more multiplayers in it though ! So go and buy a copy of this game so we can play the multiplayer part of it too ! If you enjoy grinding games, you might want to try out a part of a game I'm making that has grinding in it too ! It is on my site(unity3d.ca) just go to the Ullukai games page and play it in your webbrowser !

goood game easy to play fun for the family and friends great for kids that love skatebording games ..............................​.......

This was a gift for my grandson. He is thrilled with the game.
He has told me that it is awesome. Since he is in another state,
I have not had the pleassure of watching him play it on his
Xbox 360, but from his reaction, I am sure this is a great item.