X2 Snowboarding, a winter-games offering from the makers of X2 Soccer 2009 (and the upcoming X2 Soccer 2010), is now available from the app store. X2 Games has taken aspects of the most popular snowboarding games on the iDevice and combined them to create an intuitive, enjoyable experience that is second only to actually hitting the slopes.
X2 Snowboarding Pros:
- Beautiful cell-shading makes up amazing graphics
- Plenty of game options
- Cheat code input section
- Upbeat tunes that boarders should like
- Sweet half-time button and rewind features
- Great replay value due to unlockables, cheats, and content variables
X2 Snowboarding Cons:
- Some difficulty determining main trail
- Lacking online connectivity
There are 6 different mountains to shred, with the American and Japanese locations unlocked from the start. Each has three racing modes, though only one mode is unlocked. Earning enough stars will unlock the other modes, as well as other exotic locales. You also have 6 characters to choose from, each with his own ranking on a set of attributes, including speed, balance, and air. Depending on the course, one rider may be better suited than another. Six boards are available from the shop, with two unlocked and four available for later purchase using coins collected while carving powder. There are plenty of game options to select from the Settings menu. There are three difficulty settings (Easy, Medium, and Hard), tilt and steering sensitivity sliders, two options for spin (swipe and tilt), and orientation settings. There is also a cheat sections that allows you to input codes that we assume are discovered during normal game play. These cheats unlock options such as unlimited boost and perfect balance.
The game’s graphics are terrific, utilizing a beautiful cell-shading style that gives X2 Snowboarding a lot of character. The riders each have a unique style, and the various boards and locations also offer something different visually. The mountains are rife with jumps, rails, trees, and various obstacles to avoid or use to your advantage. The soundtrack is upbeat and enjoyable for players who are into the snowboarding scene. There is support for playing tunes from your own library, too. The control scheme is where the game really shines. Both accelerometer and touch controls are utilized to great effect. Tilting the device left or right affects the steering of your board, while tilting forward or backward causes you to lean forward for more speed or lean back to slow down. There are buttons to jump, boost, and perform wheelies. Tapping the jump button performs a quick hop, while holding and releasing the same button results in a higher jump, especially when used in conjunction with a ramp. Performing tricks fills your boost bar, and holding the boost button gives you a burst of speed. The wheelie button allows you to go up on the tip or the butt end of your board. While in air, you can swipe left or right to spin or swipe up or down to flip. Also while in air, images of your snowboard appear at the left and right of the screen with several hands marked in various spots. Touching any of these hands performs a specific grab, like a stalefish or an indy. Landing jumps is fairly forgiving, as in Crazy Snowboard, but the awesome at-your-fingertips trick options is reminiscent of Shaun White Snowboarding.
X2 Snowboarding also includes a couple of other great features. There is a half-time button that, when activated, slows gameplay to half-speed for a few seconds, which is useful for dodging trees or navigating difficult terrain. This will cost you a bit of boost each time you use it. There is also a rewind option that will allow you to back up and retry areas where you may have crashed or missed a ramp. Boost is depleted in proportion with the amount of time you back up, so use it wisely. There is even an instant replay option available from the pause menu, allowing you to view a recent portion of your run from different angles and even save your best moves. Our only negative note was that, at time, we had difficulty telling exactly where the main trail was and whether or not we were going off the beaten path. It was also a bit troubling to determine with any certainty how close we were to the ground when attempting to extend a trick, which resulted in a number of powder-cascading wipeouts.
X2 Snowboarding has great replay value, with its unlockables, cheats, various combinations of riders, boards, mountains, and modes. There is also multiplayer available through local wi-fi or Bluetooth (sorry, no online at this time). X2 Snowboarding sells for $6.99 and is pretty much everything we could have hoped for in a 5-Dimple blizzard of awesome.
