Shaun White Snowboarding

Tony Hawk Hasn't landed on our desktop for a while, and even then that was the poor American Wasteland. Shaun White Snowboarding is Ubisoft's attempt to steal the skateboarding series' crown, while adding an intriguing new multiplayer element to the mix.

This is a drop-in/drop-out multiplayer option that allows you to join a friend's, single-player experience and then play about with them. As a virtual lobby, it works well and is something that more games should consider doing. I Unfortunately, things go rapidly downhill from there (suitably enough). You start off at the top of a big mountain and slide down it, collecting big coins, pulling off tricks, entering events and finding secret areas. There's a lot to see and do, which is kind of the problem. When you first start, there's almost too much going on and you don't really know where to start. Tony Hawk games gave you a similar number of things to do per map, but they make things much more focused and easy to find. Shaun White's mini-map can be confusing until you figure out what each crudely drawn symbol means.

Handling is fiddly too, on both control pad and keys, and it doesn't feel as fun to play as Tony's series. Levels and locations aren't as amusingly themed or varied in SkVS, primarily because there are only so many things you can do with snow.

Another Tony Hawk clone is always welcome, even for keyboard obsessives like myself, but as cheap as Shaun White Snowboarding is, there's probably more fun and value for money to be had in just buying one of the Tony Hawk games. And that's snow joke (sorry).