Shaun White Skateboarding adds a new twist to the traditional skateboarding formula by having players earn their skate-lines with better play styles. Taking a idea from last winter's The Saboteur, Shaun White starts in a drab black-and-white world devoid of any gnarly shredding. As players land tricks and perform amazing feats, color and vibrancy are brought back into the world along with new landscapes that have gaps, benches, ramps, rails, and bowls. Using a unique "skater-vision" and simple control scheme similar to EA's Skate, Shaun White Skateboarding is looking to compete with EA's top-dog.
Creative Director Nick Harper said:
"When we started making the game, we knew we wanted to give players a sense of how skaters see the world - everything is an opportunity."
This talk of "how skaters see the world" reminds me of the original PlayStation game Grind Session, which incorporated many of these ideas that Harper is expressing. That game turned out pretty good considering it was a PSOne era competition to the massively successful Tony Hawk franchise.
So let's see if Shaun White can overcome the competition once again this Fall. Shaun White Skateboarding is expected to ship with over 80 tricks picked by the Olympian himself and will also have online multiplayer for competitive and co-operative players.
