User Reviews (1 - 11 of 17)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

...unrealistic sim

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: November 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

...i actuately snowboard,and this game is FAR FAAR from reality, not it the good way SSX was, but in a HORIBLE way. you can do a 900 off of a tiny ledge and land it, and it's only tricks, NO racing!! is that fair? NO!! the only good thing i'd say is in this game, is the music. that prety much it. now if you don't believe me, rent it, but take my warning DO NOT BUY UNTIL YOU KNOW YOU LIKE IT!!!!!! now it is kinda one of those games where some love it and some hate it, but i just happen to hate it, and i'm bringing my hate to you. merry christmas.

READ THIS REVIEW

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Put tony hawk pro skater 3 and ssx tricky in a blender and you get, two broken games. Buy this game and you get, one broken game. I would like to tell all of you now that this is NOT tony hawk's pro skater on a snowboard. First of all, the graphics are about 1/9 as good as Tony Hawk's pro skater, which is pretty bad for a PS2 game. Secondly, the trick system is so terrible that neversoft should be ashamed. I played the demo of this game that came with THPS3, and turned it off after the first 2 minutes. I never played it again. Please, buy SSX tricky instead.
I would also like to say that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is a great game.

Avoid this one - its not up to speed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game thinking that it would be a fun snowboarding game, but after a few hours, I think I should send it back. First the controls are pretty lame - they are merely button presses - you never feel like you have any sense of the snowboarder's true spins or rotations. The tricks only occur when you push the right combo buttons. So it feels robotic and not intuitive. Secondly, the graphics are only worthy of a 1st generation PS2 title - they are pretty bad. The textures are muddled - the riders look pasted on, and there is no real sense of a crisp environment. Last, there is no real sense of flow to the game. I find myself trying to get a good line of tricks together and not being able to pull it off. I tried for a while, but I think the level design isn't too hot. Maybe its because they are trying to implement the feel of a skate game (Hawk) to a Snowboard game, when the two are distinctly different.

Sound is mediocre - the boarder had an annoying scraping sound that reminded me more of a skate game or riding on really icy terrain. It didn't sound right. I'm sure there are some big heavy metal music fans out there - and if this is your style then you will love this game. I chose to play with the music off - it just gets distracting.

The other cheezy part is the whole "extreme"ness of the game. The graphic style and the gothic lettering is more unreadable than it is "cool". The whole thing just feels like Activision is trying to cash in on the success of the Hawk game. What made the Hawk game so good was the game, not any of the "extreme" stuff that came with it.

If you're into snowboarding sim games - I would try the Winter X Games titles from Konami. Last year's game was good and this year's game is also right on - the controls are tight. If you like really arcade style games- try SSX Tricky. But Palmer should be a rental only. Even Cool Boarders 2001 is better than this - and that says a lot.

Is this game possible?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game, and naturally, I did not get a full set of instructions. That is the only excuse for why this game was nearly impossible. Sure, I could take the one run, go all over the mountain, do some inexplicably impossible stunts, and find cool things, but there was no physical way I could find to advance to the next mountain. When I had certain boarders, nearly any combination of buttons and/or stick moves would invariably result in exactly the same stunt. Only using Palmer himself seemed to change that aspect. I can only say thankfully it only cost me one rental.

Snowboarding is DIFFERENT from skateboarding...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying that I love the Tony Hawk series, and I'm an avid Snowboarder. The developers of this game clearly used the same engine as T.H. but swapped out all the stuff... mostly the skateboard for a snowboard. The result is weird physics. In T.H., you can skate whichever way you want; not true of Shaun Palmer's in which you can't push.

When you're playing this game, it's like there are currents, as if you were in water. You mysteriously get dragged one way or another, pulled along, sometimes uphill, for no reason.

One of the worst levels is the third, which is called "Kirkwood". There is a frozen river bed that runs down the center, and if you mess up, you get sucked in, and have to start-over at the top (there are lifts etc). It gets SO annoying. In T.H., there are a few places like that, but most of the time, you can line up certain things and try them over and over. With this game, you spend all your time getting back to where you want to be, and since you can't stop, you have to be on-course all the way down (for some reason, even if you hold back, your guy keeps hopping and starting... he should just sit down, that's what real boarders do!). The world interactive like it is in T.H.

I think the problem is that the developers don't understand snowboarding, or its appeal. You can almost feel them getting bored making the courses, trying to make them interesting with lots of really strange grinds (for some reason, the balance interface is more in-your-face here than in T.H., and I got really tired of trying to hold it steady during hideously long grinds). It really is like a light or simplified version of Tony Hawk.

I really prefer SSX Tricky. There is more of a sense of speed, and the tricks are mostly more realistic, but then they threw in some totally over-the-top ones for fun. Tony Hawk 1,2 and 3 are also great. The only reason to buy this game would be if you buy every Snowboarding game that comes out. Don't believe me? Just rent it first, that's all I ask.

mediocre

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: December 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Take the downhill courses from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, replace the skateboards with snowboards, and you've got yourself a damn fine snowboarding game, right? Wrong. Although Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder borrows heavily from Tony, it's not nearly as good. Not by a long shot. Maybe it's the way your character occasionally lands tricks that look impossible while falling inexplicably at other times. Maybe it's the way he tries to go uphill when you don't want him to. Maybe it's the developers strange fascination with grinds, which seldom occur in real snowboarding but have to be performed adnauseum to advance in the game. Or maybe it's the game's obscene difficulty level Greg and i had to tag team the game for hours to reach the third level. Shaun Palmers does have a few things going for it. The control scheme , level objectives and stat building process have been lifted straight from Tony Hawk Pro Skater, meaning fans of the series will instantly feel at home. You're also free to choose your own path down each run, instead of being restricted to a narrowly defined course, as you are in many snowboarding games. Shaun Palmer's also has a truckload of cleverly hidden secret items, sure to keep you busy for hours. Still, there are way too many better snowboarding games available for Playstation 2, most notably SSX tricky or Cool Boarders 2001, for me to want to spend too much time with this one.

Unrealistic

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: November 21, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have played the demo to this game on Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 and it looks too easy. In real life it if impossible to do a backflip off the ground just by jumping, but it's possible in this game. The graphics look good just the gameplay needs worked on.

shaun palmers

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game and enjoyed playing it. So i bought it. The levels are very big and have a lot of things to do in them. Which is different than all of the other snowboarding games. It was a to hard though. I couldnt even get pasted the 2nd level. The music is by far the best out of every other video game!! I ended up taking the game back just because it was so hard. The buttons are also way to easy. It is practically impossible to do a backflip while just snowboarding along. Which you can do in this game. I am a snowboarder and this game is way to unreal! I would recomend renting this game before buying it!!

Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarding

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: September 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Here is how I rated this game:

Fun: 4 stars. I don't play the game on one player mode, but when I'm playing with a friend it's a lot of fun! There are different ways you can compete, and you can teach each other cool combos. Also, I think it's cool that you can create your own boarder. You get to choose your boarders appearence, board choices, and skills, then save him/her to play with in the game.

Educational Value: 3 stars. Although what you learn in this game won't do you much good in college, you can still read bios of real players, which I would consider to be some kind of knowledge.

Durability: 2 stars. Like all discs, it is fragile and should be taken good care of.

Overall: 4 stars.

P.S. Please don't write a review just to voice your opinion about mine. Reviews aren't meant to be used like message boards, they're meant to be used to tell others what's worth buying, and what's not.

P.S.S. And I'd say this is definately worth buying if you like a challenge, and like to strategize.

Better than THPS, no matter what you think!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: May 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is superior to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in many ways:

1.Way better soundtrack. Tony Hawk didn't even have any good bands on his first game, then on his 2nd he had 3 good bands and 3 good songs, Papa Roach's "Blood Brothers", Rage Aganist the Machine's "Guerilla Radio" and Powerman 5000's "When World's Collide. Then, on his 3rd game, he had 1 good band, Alien Ant Farm, but picked their bad song, "Wish". Meanwhile, Shaun Palmer has Alien Ant Farm's "Courage" (Their best song), Powerman 5000's "Bombshell", Spineshank's "New Disease" (Which inspired me to but their CD), Papa Roach's "Dead Cell" (Their best song), and Static-X's "This is Not". Point to Shaun.

2.Easy to play. You can almost pull off a 900 just by clicking a button. And you can EASILY create a boarder.

3.He doidn't get greedy and put out 3 games!!

4.You can bonk. Bonk. Bonk. Say "bonk" with me.

5.People have really good A.I.

6.A lot more reasons I don't want to list because I'm tired of typing so now I say goodbye.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions