Big Mountain Snowboarding 4+

Lovely cruising around wherever you want to go, and complete the 'challenges'....which even for a casual gamer aren't much of a challenge. Tricks are easy...would be great to be able to perform more tricks, flips upside down both forwards and backwards would make the game more interesting. Hitting a tree even slightly stops your speed completely yet you don't 'wipeout'... Would be nice to see a spray of snow come off and the game allow some tree fun when only just glancing them. Also no park or rails available which is a shame. A fair variety of courses but after a while they do get to be a bit 'samey'. Rider choice, board choice and ability to play&compete against others would also be a welcome addition.

There are a few snowboarding games on iPhone now, and they're mostly marble-runs down a drainpipe affairs. This is the first 'open mountain' style game.

The feel of the board is great and the sense of space is fantastic. The mountains are huge open environments with lots of freedom to choose a route.

The graphics are good if blandly lit, and the character is well made. I really liked the score and tricks streaming from the boarder as he performs moves. There are masses of mountains too. Overall the quality's there.

The downside is that this feels like a technical demo with some gameplay added. The tricks mechanism is very under-developed and there's only one rider to chose from. Animation is good but limited. Presentation is inovitive at times but the UI looks like a place holder. There's no sense of the style and cool of snowboarding. Additionally, there's only an open-play mode. That's okay but there needs to be more visual and gameplay stimulation if that approach is taken.

Overall, I do like it. I like the open mountain and the tactile feel of the snow. I like the fact that it manages to be (in some ways) technically more inovative than almost every other snowboarding game in the store (except the utterly stunning x2 Snowboarding of course).

But is there really a game in here? I'm not too sure really, but I await updates with real interest...

Amazing game, must buy!!! Could do with half pipe, slope-style and big air, otherwise great game!!!buy it!!!!!