The snowboarding genre has always had the dubious quality of being two-faced. On the one side of the coin are the arcade style games where pulling super quad front flips while unstrapping from the board and using it as an air guitar are as easy as remembering to breathe, while the other half of the genre strictly adheres to gravity's tyrannical rule over all that attempt to leave Mother Earth's wintry bosom. Due to this polarity in play style, fans of the genre have been split as well. Developer Bongfish (yes, that is their real name...) just might have the game that can act as a point of unification between the two opposing shred styles.

From the outset Stoked offers a decent range of customization. Everything cosmetic, from your haircut to your boots, can be changed. The problem with this is a surprising lack of choices in the different categories. For example, I was really excited to make a digital version of JF Pelchat's amazing facial hair. However, I was quickly disappointed with my selection to adorn my rider. The choice between a full beard, being clean shaven, or having a bandanna covering a majority of my face left much to be desired. This kind of thing was repeated throughout the character creation process. Finally, I decided on some fashionable gear and hit the slopes.


At the beginning of the game there are three (out of a total of five) mountains unlocked to explore and perform feats of aerial prowess that would leave your's truly with full shorts and empty bowels. The problem with these mountains is that they all look remarkably the same. Without the use of set pieces, temples scattered around Mt. Fuji for example, there is no sense that you have left one mountain for another. There is also a lack of actual terrain parks that I find to be a huge oversight. You're left riding around looking for decent features to trick off of. While this adds to the freeride atmosphere, it makes hitting the high score harder.

Based on the early advertising for the game, particularly the comparisons to skate., I had worked out way I wanted the controls to work. And for the most part, they have lived up to my expectations. You pull the right stick back to crouch and flick it forward to jump. Spinning is taken care of on the left stick. Grabs are handled (no pun intended... well, maybe a little) by the two triggers with the ability to tweak the grabs is covered by the right stick once in the air. I would have liked them to be a little more fluid, often turning before taking off (something that is common in real life before pulling off an epic spin move) not only scrubs your speed but negates the fact that you are crouched, thus giving you a smaller take-off jump when you flick the right stick up. Another, albeit minor, gripe with the controls is that the grabs stay the same despite which direction you are facing, unlike skate., which is much more fluid.

The controls, though, are where healing between the arcade fans and the realism fans has a chance to begin. Stoked gives you the option to pre-wind your tricks, the result of which is a much larger degree of rotation after take-off. Do enough of this and you'll receive “Hucker” bonuses that will allow you to spin even more. On the opposite side, if you would rather play more realistically, you can pull the left stick half way in any direction and (provided you don't face plant) you'll be given “Stylish” bonuses that will unlock more grabs. This dichotomy allows everyone to choose how they want to ride while not locking you into one path as you can swing back and forth by just pulling of the opposite style of tricks.

 

The challenges are also repetitive early in the game. Get a certain amount of points, do a specific trick, and so on. Completing these challenges earns your rider Fame points. Gather enough Fame and you'll be asked to perform tricks in from of a camera or with a pro rider. Anyone familiar with the Amped series will be right at home with these media/pro challenges. I say this because the challenges in Stoked are very (some might say exactly) similar to the goals in Amped. In essence, you have to do the same thing as when the cameras aren't watching, only this time through “frames” to get the shot. In the pro challenges you must perform the same tricks as the pro and follow them through a certain amount of gates, all without falling more that the allowed three times.

 

This is where my biggest gripe with Stoked comes. These media and pro challenges were the bane of my poor avatar's existence in Amped, and now I find myself doing the same exact types of things. Another major complaint is the lack of a following camera. Stoked gives you a camera to take pictures with, but using it while pulling off anything that looks good is damn near impossible, requiring you to press and hold the right bumper and press the A button to take the shot. This game would benefit greatly from the addition of a skate. style community where people could show of sick lines and tricks.

 

What redeems Stoked are the online and dynamic weather features. Online play is treated like a free-for-all wherein a handful of riders just hang out until someone initiates a challenge of some sort. These range from the standard race and game of T.R.I.C.K. (think S.K.A.T.E. or H.O.R.S.E.) to the more outrageous The Ground Is Lava, where the players must continuously do some sort of tricks to stop their board from melting (indicated by a bit of red that slowly creeps across a snowboard icon in the upper-left of the screen). The dynamic weather feature is really where the rubber meets the road for me. Logging in to find that there has been four feet of fresh powder dumped on to the slopes is an awesome feeling. And the total snowfall actually makes a big difference. As you're riding along you'll see some challenges that you might not be able to do based on the fact that the ratio of snow to rock is in the latter's favor. Also, riding in the deep pow leaves your rider covered in snow, a nice touch that Bongfish (seriously, that's their name) had added.

Despite the learning curve in the controls, the lack of a following camera, and the similarity in the mountains Stoked offers a fairly good snowboarding package at a decent price, retailing for only $39.99. Whether you're a hucker or a more stylish rider Stoked is most certainly worth picking up, if only to hold you over in the summer months when they come.