Xbox 360 Critic Reviews

In skating terms, this game's success is more than just dropping in on a vert ramp for the first time without eating it face-first. Shaun White Skateboarding has some tricks in its back pocket, and I look forward to it expanding its arsenal in the future.

Just please, Ubisoft, keep the party going, and don't pile on unnecessary objectives. We just want to ride.

As enjoyable as Shaun White Skateboarding was in small bursts, the overall game doesn't really have much going for it.

A different take on the skating world: wide exploration and customization of the environment make this game interesting if you're looking for something different from the usual grinds.

Ubisoft deserves credit for its effort to create a different skating experience. Bending rails and ramps in succession feels like being on a morphing rollercoaster ride, and the shifting cityscape is a treat for the eyes. Unfortunately the rest of the game plays it safe with missions and features one could find in any other skating title.

It never hits Neversoft's golden-age standard, but it comes much closer than such a daft premise would lead you to suspect. [Dec 2010, p.95]

The creativity and daring invention of the designers should be applauded in no uncertain terms. But by the end of the game, it's clear that the studio was unable to bring its patchwork quilt of mechanics together into a coherent whole.

The ability to manipulate the world is executed well, and it really does drive the experience into a realm much more fantastic than you'd expect from a skateboarding game. We just wish the story and campaign were better conceived, and the fact that the free skate mode is locked till the end is rather disappointing.

An unexpectedly daring mix of Jet Set Radio and de Blob, that may lack in realism or plausibility but certainly not in imagination and fun.

Unfortunately, Shaun White Skateboarding doesn't really pull off all of its goals, but it's still a fascinating lateral shift for the genre.