Shaun White Snowboards

When you go flying down the slopes on your snowboard (aka balance board), I swear you can almost feel the rush it in the pit of your stomach, it's that much of a total immersion. This game makes great use of the balance board and is very sensitive to your movements. You can actually set the sensitivity to low, medium or high. When you lean forward, you move faster. Lean back and you slow down or stop. When you lean to the side, you go in that direction. When you lower yourself and then quickly straighten your legs, shifting your weight to the balls of your feet, your character jumps. You're in constant motion, using the board and the wiimote to help with some of the more complex movements and tricks. Using the balance board you can just get onboard and play right away, without a big learning curve. (We won't mention that tree that came out of nowhere and smacked me on one of my first tries.) It gets more difficult and there are tricks to be learned as you progress through the slopes, but you can have fun right from the start. You can also play it using just the Wiimote, but why would you want to?

These are some of the best graphics I've seen on a Wii game. You can tell that it was well thought out. There are slopes in five places to explore: Switzerland, Japan, Chile and Park City, and you start out in Canada where you learn the basics, some of which are speed, balance and doing different spins and tricks, such as jumping up on these rails and maintaining your balance til the end which is a way of accumulating points. When you clear the required slopes in one location, the next is unlocked. You really feel the sense of speed as you race down a slope with the different camera angles. and when you fall down, your character gets covered with snow and your camera man's lens gets snow on it which adds to the realism. The vistas are beautiful. The sound effects are realistic and the music is fun and energizing. You can switch through the different music selections using the "1" key on the Wiimote.

Then there's the whole storyline of traveling with Shaun White and other characters that join you on your snowboarding trip around the world. It adds another fun aspect to the game.

The exercise aspect of this game goes almost unnoticed while you're playing it because it's so much fun. But after a few hours "on the slopes" I can feel that a lot of leg, thigh and abdominal muscles are going to be sore tomorrow from all the leaning, twisting and turning. My ankles feel like they did after I ice skated for the first time. It has to be great for balance and flexibility as well as strengthening muscles.

I'm in my 50's, and I absolutely love this game so far and I think it's great for "older kids" who've never tried snowboarding as well as for younger ones. And I just started playing it today so I'm sure there's lots to discover. It will definitely be one of the classics in my Wii collection. Two thumbs up!