Stoked
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Stoked
Finally, a decent snowboarding game!
I’ll admit…I’m not very good with snowboards. Actually, it’s the only sport (alongside Jai alai) that gives me the creeps and that I swore to never do but, I’ve recently been battling one of my fears by playing snowboarding games on consoles. For me, two games really stood out: 1080 Snowboarding on the N64 and Amped 2 on the original Xbox. The others, even if I enjoyed them, never really caught my attention. Actually, after Shaun White Snowboarding and its coin-collecting mumbo-jumbo, my fear of true snowboarding was beginning to transfer to virtual snowboarding…until I played Stoked. And while it’s not as pretty and perfect some people may expect, it delivers what gamers want in their snowboarding game: a straightforward, challenging, fun and smart experience worth spending hours on it.
Known for their “Stoked Rider” game series on the PC & MAC, developer Bongfish brought their expertise to the Xbox 360 with “Stoked”, which is basically a result of mixing Skate’s control scheme to Amped’s deep and rewarding gameplay with 1080’s simplistic and yet solid presentation level. Once you start the game, you will be taken directly to the game’s customizer where you create your rider and choose everything you need from your clothes to your board & bindings; even if it’s limited, you will find more than enough here.
From there, you will start as an amateur with no sponsors and no fame. To change that, you will have to hit one of the available slopes and its challenges, scattered around each mountain. These challenges are broken down into three categories: “Session Challenges” will earn you fame points that will be used to attract new sponsors, “Media Challenges” attract potential sponsors while “Fame Challenges” will earn you sponsorship so you can represent that sponsor in an specific event. Here, the analog sticks will be your tools of the trade and good control over them will be required to complete challenges. Stoked offers a nice amount of moves and tricks that you can pull-off but it won’t an easy task. The learning curve, just like with the Amped games, is steep and patience will be required in order to chain tricks and even successfully control your landings since the trick system isn’t extremely easy; it requires skill. Of course, experienced gamers with this genre will have less difficulty getting around the controls but others will have to practice. Thankfully, there are two ways to play in Stoked. You can either ride as a Hucker, which consists on doing as many tricks as you can, as fast as you can or as a Stylish Rider, which consists on doing a small set of tricks slowly and smoothly. You see, no matter which style you play as, you will be racking up almost the same scores so you won’t be penalized. When you complete challenges you can gain more points and change the whole equation since every beaten challenge will get you skill bonuses that will change the way you do things in the game. For instance, if you play as a Hucker, you will acquire pre-wind boosters that will allow you to pull off grabs faster; whereas if you go Stylish, different forms of grabs will be unlocked and your collected tricks will be receive a tweak. Pulling successful tricks can be a bit difficult because of the way the environmental animations work, so when you try to land your snowboard it doesn’t land where you had hoped, making it hard to try and chain style points or “jibbing” for the connoisseurs. The physics aren’t always an easy thing to deal in the game so it increases the difficulty and the frustration level at various times but not to the point where you want to stop playing the game. Sometimes the character reactions against the environments throw off the game’s realism. You see, Amped 2 suffered from similar physics issues. Regardless of that, the game became (and still is) one of the coolest snowboarding games on the market. Stoked has that same feeling.
As far as single player mode is concerned, there’s nothing else major to point out. The whole game revolves on the concept of nailing tricks and accumulating the most points in order to get fame points and advance into your career. When you get past 66 Fame Points, you will earn your Professional license and you will then start seeing all sorts of contracts, sponsors, challenges and competitions to attend; this is where the game deepens and becomes rather interesting. The game does take a while to get there but rest assured, once you get pass a few challenges and get that license, Stoked will become really fulfilling.
The game does features a multiplayer mode, which is based on the same experience found on the single player mode, but without the tons of challenges lying around the slopes. By simply creating a match through your directional pad, similar to what Shaun White Snowboarding did, you will be able to invite seven of your friends and challenge them to one of the six modes available such as a H.O.R.S.E-like game where your buddies will have to emulate the tricks you just pulled or score challenges in which the one who racks the most points wins. By far, my favourite mode would be “The Ground is Lava” in which players have to stay out of the snow as long as possible by either pulling air tricks or grinding objects. The sad part of the multiplayer mode is the lack of community. We have managed to play a few challenges with some people but the experience was non-conclusive most of the time.
Graphics & Sounds
I would lie if I told you the game was built on a multi-million dollar graphic engine and features high quality character renderings. No, the effort by Bongfish misses a few steps in that department but regardless of that, Stoked’s graphic engine remains solid and holds its ground at all times. Add to that some nice environments thanks to very solid weather and lighting effects; you get a decent game with solid gameplay experience rather than a piece of junk.
As for the sounds, well…there’s not much to say on this part. There are a few voice-overs but whenever they are heard, they sound very aesthetic with no emotion whatsoever. The only upside is the interesting mix of indie music available through the virtual music player. You can select different genres and each one has its own distinctive songs that you can select from the directional pad. For the rest, everything is generic. It sure is the only side of the game that doesn’t stand out.
Value
While Stoked’s multiplayer experience offers something interesting, it’s a shame to notice that very few people are playing the game online. Still, the single player experience offers so much in terms of replay value that you won’t cry out loud for the lack of the online community. Actually, since the game can be found in stores for less than 40$, we hope to see a sudden gain of interest in the next months that can invigorate the lacking online community.
Conclusion
We have to applaud independent developers and publishers when they release a game like “Stoked”. It clearly shows once again that it doesn’t have to be extremely pretty, uberly complicated and filled with tons of crazy modes and unnecessary options. Instead it delivers the deep and rewarding gameplay fans of the genre want. Stoked might not win huge awards but it will certainly not be forgotten if someone asks us: “dude, is there a snowboarding game out there that I should try?” Our reply would be, yes, Stoked is a game that’s definitely worth checking out.
Pros
+ Solid and challenging control scheme for experienced players
+ Simplistic and yet solid presentation and visuals
+ “Hucker” & “Stylish” riding systems
+ Great eclectic soundtrack
+ Online integration through D-pad is great
+ Deep and rewarding gameplay
+ Good experience at a great price
Cons
- Voiceovers aren’t great, lacks a bit of personality
- Takes a while before getting into the game
- Online community non-existent
- Trick system learning curve may become tiresome for some
- Physics play against you during landings and “jibbings”
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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