There are certain aspects that inherently define each gaming genre, and when those essential gameplay features are missing you have to question the validity of the game itself.
A shooter where you don't get shot at or a platform game where it's impossible to fall are broken at their core. So Adrenaline Snowboarding poses something of a problem: despite being invigoratingly fast and smooth, it's a snowboarding game where you can't fall off the board.
Don't eat the yellow powderI don't recall being faced with this problem - or lack of a problem, perhaps - in a snowboarding game before. Does it matter if you can't fall off your board? If you can't fall off your board, are big air tricks any kind of achievement? These are the questions plaguing Adrenaline Snowboarding.
When it comes to control, it's one of the finer examples of snowboarding on iPhone. The game puts numerous tricks right at your fingertips with impressive ease. The screen is beautifully uncluttered, with no visible buttons getting in the way of the lightning fast action.
The bottom-left corner crouches your snowboarder to squeeze a bit of extra speed from the board, and jumps when released. Spins and flips follow on from the jump system by allowing you to swipe from the same corner of the screen.
Your boarder performs a spin or flip in accord with the direction of your gesture. The trick roster is then rounded off by touching one or more of the corners of the screen and, when you combine this with a movement gesture, you've got a huge number of superb tricks available with remarkable ease.
Alongside the great controls, this is one of the fastest and smoothest snowboarding games the App Store has to offer, and the accelerometer is beautifully balanced so as to allow accurate steering without being overly-critical.
Going downhill fast
Where things go downhill is that you don't have to give any consideration to landing. Okay, so you don't get your points if you do a face plant after a trick, but neither does your boarder come to a halt - indeed, he barely slows his pace even after landing on a rock on the back of his skull.
You can plough face first into a pile of rocks, the cliff side or the floor, and carry on with little consequence (a slight slow down). Even trees are intangible. The lack of obstacles makes Adrenaline Snowboarding too easy.
There's a good number of unlockable riders and boards, though three slopes doesn't fill the game out. Each slope can be approached either on a score or fastest time basis, but the two game modes don't offer particularly distinct experiences.
If there was any requirement for skilful steering, successful landing and a couple more tracks, Adrenaline Snowboarding would not only live up to its name, but would be way out in front of this genre.
While recommended for its superb controls and ice-slick speed, Adrenaline Snowboarding finds itself lacking obstacles and motivation to play well.
Adrenaline Snowboarding
Blindingly fast and impressively accessible, this otherwise sterling example of digital snowboarding is let down by a lack of consequence for playing badly
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.