Family Ski & Snowboard Review

I would like to note before we start, that this game is intentionally used with the Wii balance board, and I decided to try out the game first of all without the Wii balance board and then try to play the game with it later on and compare whether it is better with or without the Wii balance board or if it didn't matter. However, I was pretty relieved when they gave you the option of using the Wii board or not. You can either play with the Wii remote and the nunchuk, or using both with the Wii board.

When you have chosen which you will be playing with and how many people will be playing, you get to choose between using your Mii or you can choose a character from those provided by the game. I think this is quite organised because, for some odd reason, quite a few Wii games, make you create a totally new character, when you could just use you Mii character! You can have up to sixteen profiles, which I think is totally awesome! Unlike when you only usually have up to four or five profiles, you can create different profiles especially for you and your mates, or just for you and your family. When you have chosen the character you are going to play with, you then get to choose what gear they wear. You can change the outfit, your gloves, and your hat if you want one, your mask if you want one, and your equipment. You can also get ‘special' gear, which you can collect throughout the game. All parts of your gear have a ‘special' section, for example, the outfits have a ‘special' section, and in that ‘special' section you can get all sorts of weird different outfits, one being a dress, and another one is a penguin outfit. I think that it is a nice feature to the game, because it's a bit of a different thought.

There are six different modes you can play: Enjoy the Resort, where you go around ‘Jamboree Snow Resort' having fun on the different courses and practising some cool tricks; Ride the Mountain, where you explore the heights of Mt. Angrio and explore the courses, and find places that haven't been found before by other people; Competitions, where you earn rewards for competing in competitions due to certain skills you may use, for example a race, or moguls; School, which is basically like a tutorial of the game and you can choose from learning the basic moves, or the tricks; Album, where you view photos, take them (although a downside to the photo shoot is that you can only take one photo instead of quite a few) and view a slideshow all of your photos; and Records, where you view items you've collected, the events you've cleared, and various other bits of data referring to you progress throughout the game.

On the Jamboree Snow Resort, and Mt. Angrio, as I have previously said you can just relax and have fun, while practising your moves, practising your skills, and exploring the area. On both you can choose your character, choose the time of day you would like to play on, and where you want to begin your sport. You can make friends and they follow you, however if let's say, you made a buddy on Mt. Angrio, then go to the snow resort then your buddies will not be there. Just a few of the things you can do are: help someone if they are stuck in the ground; talk to a tour guide about going on a tour; or someone can invite you to a challenge. If you do a move that you particularly liked and wanted to view it, then you can observe it again on an instant replay, which you can get to if you go on the pause menu. On the Competition mode you have many different competitions to choose from which are: Race, which is where you have to be the first one to reach the destination to win; Slalom Challenge, where you have to weave through the red and blue poles, and reach the goal before time runs out; Slope Challenge, which is where you try and get the most points (tricks wise) and reach the point goal; Half-pipe, which is where you ride on a half-pipe and try and get loads of points for tricks and reach the point goal; and Moguls, where you have to ride on moguls and get above a certain score, by controlling your turns, your time, balance and add a few air tricks.

You can choose from using skis or a snowboard, and can change which one you want later on, in where you can change your gear. You can do tricks to give you points in general or for competitions. Do note: whether you choose to use the skis or the snowboard, the maps/challenges don't make a difference, and neither do the tricks change. The tricks ranged from quite simple to very challenging, and somewhat hard to remember. In all honesty, I found that the game was quite frustrating when you came to a jump and couldn't remember what moves you could do so you end up either doing the easiest one, and not get so many points, or just wave your arms around whilst pressing some buttons and hope for the best.

When I tried playing this game with the Wii balance board, I noticed the difference in ability to play is a lot easier. At first I was unsteady and all over the place because I was used to just standing there leaning to one side, therefore my posture wasn't right, resulting in sharp turns and hitting the side. But then it got easier, and by no time at all I was doing much better turning wise than I was when I was not using the Wii balance board. It makes moving a lot easier in my opinion, for the reason that it is easier to remember, since that all you have to do tilt side to side, instead of pressing some buttons and waving your arms around. A down side is that, although moving is made a lot easier, the tricks are not changed so you still have to try and remember all the controls. A pleasant plus side to having the Wii board is that if you accidentally jump off of it or just get off, then the game automatically pauses. It can annoying though if you have a mat for your Wii board like mine and stubbly bits start to really dig into your and you just want a quick get off and then back on again and it pauses when your just standing still on the game.

In general I think that this game is rather enjoyable, although it can be a bit tedious and repetitive. Another thing letting it down is that the music is limited and when people talk, they make a scribbling kind of noise as if someone is writing something on a white-board. It's not too annoying at first but then it gets more and more irritating, and there is no way of stopping it because there is no options menu, which I think is totally ridiculous because you need some sort of options menu. Playing with the Wii balance board is also much better because although it doesn't change the gameplay much, you have to have the right posture so you're not tempted to sit on the sofa whilst doing it and start getting bored.