Standing Alone (cntd)

Stoic Mode, on the other hand, is just as bad as the Battle Mode, if not even worse. This mode stills holds true to the idea of going down a slope, teleporting back to the top, and down again, but this time you’re not given boosts or weapons. Instead, you’ll rely on techniques to make your way through gates that will help speed you up. When it’s all said and done, Stoic Mode is just as boring as Battle Mode.

Online play is also featured in Snowboard Riot, and thankfully it’s actually pretty decent. While finding a match may take some trouble, once you’re connected, you can stay in that group for as long as you want. If a player departs, an AI character simply takes over. In addition to this, Friend Codes can be used so that you can play against friends.

One of my biggest problems with Snowboard Riot is the rubber band AI. I personally thought that the AI in Mario Kart Wii were terrible, but honestly Snowboard Riot makes it look good. It’s almost impossible to maintain first place due to the constant use of weapons by enemies and the fact that they constantly gain speed if you get too far ahead.

Balancing act

Another thing that Snowboard Riot experimented with was using the Wii Balance Board instead of a nunchuk, and yet again, it fails at executing it properly. The Balance Board controls aren’t very precise and only made the game worse. The traditional control scheme works great so there really wasn’t any need for implementing Balance Board support.

For a WiiWare game, Snowboard Riot looks pretty good. The courses have a lot of detail in them but don’t offer a whole lot of variety. Almost all of the courses look identical and that’s pretty bad considering that the game only offers four different courses. Also worth mentioning is that there’s little variety in music. I don’t why but while playing, I thought that the same track was being played each time. In reality, though, the game has four different tracks, one for each course.

Fun?

Let me tell you this, Snowboard Riot isn’t fun and it’s a complete waste of ten dollars. With games such as Mega Man 9, Maboshi’s Arcade, and the Art Style being available for the same or lower price, it isn’t difficult to see that the game is way too expensive. Hopefully Hudson will continue making higher-quality games on WiiWare and not experiment with anything like this again unless they absolutely know what they are doing.