Snowboarding

If I strapped two honey-baked hams to my feet and launched myself willy-nilly down a mountain, I reckon I'd have better control over my speed and direction than what's offered in this game. Your character here feels less like a snowboarder and more like a pinball, careening off ridge after ridge as he speeds down the slopes. In fact, I pretty much just let my snowboarder bounce his way through the course, which was easier than using the tight-turn buttons to try to steer. The weak control makes life bad enough in the bare-bones Race mode, but Trick mode is even more annoying. Although you can do basic grabs any time you want, you can only pull off spectacular stunts by hitting the X button at exactly the right place and time (arrows point to spots in the course where you can do tricks). Special tricks are more trouble than they're worth, though--you have little control over your spin rate, and landing a trick is more a matter of luck than skill. I guess I shouldn't expect much from a $10 budget title like this, but then would you pay 10 bucks for a turd?