Trick-based racing games have always come in and out of vogue and the popularity genre leaders like the Tony Hawk series are a great way of checking how strong the genre is doing. X2 Games has released X2 Snowboarding despite the currently luke-warm state of trick-racing, but is its gameplay good enough to go against the odds?
X2 combines several control methods, some of which can be changed to your preference, for great control over your snowboarder of choice. Accelerometer controls are used to move and spin in the air if you choose, while touches and swipes are also used to spin and initiate special moves for bonus points. There are a lot of points to touch, but all of them are responsive and it's easy to randomly tap for points while learning the finer points of control. Grinds are notoriously annoying to initiate, but aren't a deal-breaker on most levels.
Stages are available for each of the six boarders available in the game. Depending on your performance on each stage and collecting scattered gold coins you'll be able to unlock more stages and equipment to customize each boarder. Gameplay is accentuated by the ability to reverse time, slow down time or speed up and gives score-junkies the tools to maximize their runs.
With its grinding sound-track, endless logo stickers and perfectionist take on scoring X2 Snowboarding is a standard entry in the genre. Fans of trick-racing games will find a perfect game to enjoy in X2, but it's not a standout entry either.
Description
"Finally, a quality snowboarding title has landed on the iPhone" - Touch Arcade
"the best snowboarding game for the iPhone" - 8 out of 10 - IGN
"stunning visual style" "awesome gameplay" – 8 out of 10, Silver Award - Pocket Gamer
"X2 Snowboarding is the best snowboarding game available in the app store" - 4.5 out of 5 - Touch Reviews
"X2 Snowboarding is the best simulator of this extreme sport on the iPhone" - 3 out of 4 - Slide to Play
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From X2 Games, the makers of X2 Football… comes X2 Snowboarding.
X2 Snowboarding is a fast-paced extreme sports simulation, combining console quality graphics & physics with arcade style game play. Players compete in a series of freestyle, race & trick-race events across an international stage.
•Fluid motion and touch controls
•Optimal graphics & unique visual style
•Bluetooth & local WiFi multiplayer
•Full motion-captured player animations
•In-game rewind: re-wind and re-play during your run to retry missed opportunities
•Adrenaline: slow down time and enhance your handling and trick performance capabilities
•Replay save system
•Tru Thoughts Recordings licensed soundtrack: featuring Quantic, Bonobo & Mr Scruff
•Official Salomon in-game boards unlocked as you progress
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After learning the basics and earning your boarding pass from the Boarding School, take the character of your choice to the varied international slopes. Choose from 6 colourful boarders; Adler (Germany), Yukiko (Japan), Edward (UK), Katie (Canada), Aaron (America) & Terhi (Finland), each with individual strengths and weaknesses suiting particular playing styles and event types. Your boarder will be taken from the commercial slopes of USA, to going off the beaten track under the setting sun of Japan, to taking illicit advantage of the ski-only slopes in Switzerland, the perilous back country traverse of Chile, the night-life of a snow-village resort in Canada and the final treacherous cliff edge teeter in New Zealand.
The boarding is performed with an intuitive combination of iPhone accelerometer tilt & on-screen touch/gesture control- with 2 varying tweaked control mechanisms to choose from.
Once you’ve got the hang of the controls, you’ll soon realise that X2 Snowboarding is no ordinary snowboarding game! Successfully performing and chaining spins, flips, grabs, grind manoeuvres & buttering bestows your boarder with time-warping abilities to rewind & replay sections of the course in real-time, release adrenaline to slow down time to perfect tricky manoeuvres or ‘boost’ to leave your opponents standing. Using these special abilities wisely will give your boarder the edge in competition.
For a different challenge, take on your friends in multiplayer events over a Bluetooth or Wi-fi connection.
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Working with Salomon, Animal & record label Tru Thoughts... we have endeavoured to bring you the most stylish looking, sounding & indeed feeling game possible.
Let us know how we’ve done, enter competitions or just generally get involved in what we’re up to on Facebook and Twitter!
http://twitter.com/X2_Games
What's New in Version 1.5
Retina Display
$2.99
