As much as I enjoy snowboarding games, they feel like something of a dying fad. Ever since they became comfortable with 3D visuals, snowboarding games have struggled to bring anything new to the table, so it's interesting to see that Gameloft's latest attempt doesn't even try.
Instead it goes for sheer escapist action, compressing the usual snowboarding antics into a fast and shallow thrill ride. And after all, that's probably closer to real snowboarding than most similar games achieve.
Slipstreaming snowAs an experiment, I deliberately didn't bother to check what the controls for Avalanche Snowboarding are. I've played enough of these games to be able to take a reasonable guess at how I'd be finding my way down the slope.
Not surprisingly (but very pleasingly) everything was right where it should be. The usual of ducking to gain speed, holding down the jump button and releasing to catch the big air, and then hitting the direction buttons to perform tricks is an established and expected mechanic that's present and correct, but sweetly refined.
Anyone who's not a complete snowboarding game virgin will be pulling extreme tricks off the first ramp, and feel immediately intimate with Avalanche Snowboarding. Admittedly, it won't offer that many surprises, but the quality of its gameplay makes up for the formulaic design.
View from the top of the mountainAlongside the immediately accessible controls are some equally top notch visuals. Again, it's mountains, rails, cabins, the occasional vehicle, bottlenecks between cliffs and chasms yawning conveniently after an extra high jump, just as you'd expect.
But it's all big enough, gorgeous enough, and fast enough to ensure that the quality of presentation provides more than fair recompense for the lack of imagination.
Which really summarises the whole game. It's not very original, and it doesn't aim to bring anything particularly new to the snowboarding genre. What it does aim to do is provide a raw, high-octane example of sporting arcade action to this overfull niche, and succeeds entirely.
Avalanche Snowboarding
Admittedly it doesn't offer much of anything new, but what Avalanche Snowboarding does offer is a first class, action-packed example of arcade snowboarding
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.