Reviews// StokEd

The controls have more in common with EA's skate. than they do with the likes of SSX. Your left stick controls your body, while your board is controlled by the right analogue. An ollie or wollie comes from the right, while flips and spins come from the left. Grabs are pulled off using the shoulder buttons in tandem with the right stick once you're in the air. It's a satisfying system. The deep repertoire of tricks at your disposal is also satisfying – there are dozens of different moves to pull off.

While said repertoire of moves is certainly rewarding for seasoned boarders, however, it can be confounding when you hit the challenges – especially if you're not well-versed in snowboarding vocabulary. When you've got three or more tricks to line up to 'own' a spot and you have to consult your grab bible and think really hard about each of them, things can get frustrating. If you get a kick out of technical gameplay, however, it's a very rewarding system.

Except for when you sink into a rock, or inexplicably stack a perfectly good trick because the physics are wonky at times. That's annoying.

The online mode enables up to eight players to ride together. Refreshingly some of these such as the 40 races on offer are unique to Xbox LIVE. The Ground Is Lava is perhaps the most inventive feature, demanding that you spend as much time off the ground as possible. Ollies won't help – you need to put in a goodly number of grinds and get plenty of air.

Visually, StokEd is... well, it's a bag, and it's mixed. The mountains themselves look purdy, with BongFish having worked some winter voodoo to make them each carry their own character through the lighting and general ambience, even without the location-centric obstacles. This is complemented by a dynamic weather system and day/night cycles that can transform an entire mountain. Your rider, however, looks a bit rigid and... well, more like a character from a video game than a character from a video game needs to look in this day and age.

The soundtrack also offers a fair amount of variety - albeit mostly indy rock variety. There's a good chance you won't recognise much of it, but you won't have to listen to any of it so much that it's inscribed onto the surface of your brain, either. I won't try to tell you whether you'll like it, because a music critic I ain't.

Conclusion

For all its faults, the realistic, no-frills approach BongFish has taken to StokEd is refreshing. Those faults are enough, however, to make it a non-starter for some. Getting up to pro can be hard, repetitive and at times frustrating work and it's not for the casual rider. If you're craving a winter fix to tide you over 'til the season kicks in and you're prepared to put in the hours, however, StokEd will pay off.

SPOnG Score: 74%

^{About the Reviewer
The last place Mark Johnson went riding (or 'shredding the gnar', as his brother drunkenly, with some kind of crappy Californian accent and exuberantly put it) was the grand old Canadian Rockies. Specifically: Banff (Lake Louise, Sunshine Village) and Fernie. It turns out there's some kind of global recession on, so the next place he goes will be somewhere in little old Europe.}