The iPhone’s built-in accelerometer seems to translate especially well to certain types of games. Snowboarding is one of them, as the controls seem more natural than they do in, say, a football game.
So it’s no surprise we’ve seen plenty of snowboarding releases for the device. The latest of which is Snowboarding TnT, an iPhone app from the same makers of Big Buck Hunter Pro.
I shouldn’t say it’s the latest release, as the game actually came out earlier this year. This version is a re-release with plenty of changes, including a new course — as well as enhanced existing courses, gameplay tutorials and tweaked controls.
The arcade-style game is pretty standard when it comes to goals – simply put, you’re trying to score as many points as possible. You have a limited amount of time to finish a course, and you can gain time and point bonuses by passing through gates and collecting stars while on the course.
But your main method of accumulating points is via tricks off jumps. You can perform flips and grabs, and the better you time your jump, the more air – and time – you’ll get to execute them.
The controls are done well, even if they’re not all that original. You tilt your iPhone to turn left or right, while tricks are performed by tilting in one of four directions. There are no buttons, you just tap the screen to crouch and release to jump.
If it sounds like a really simple system, that’s because it is. It will still take you a couple of runs to become completely comfortable with it, but this is very much a pick-up-and-play kind of game.
The graphics are average — they don’t disappoint, but they aren’t overly impressive either. The gameplay is smooth for the most part, though there are times when it’s not exactly clear what’s happened – like miraculously missing a rock.
Snowboarding TnT includes two characters and seven courses, which is fewer than some of its competitors. Most take about a minute to complete and the difficulty level increases noticeably as you go along.
That’s the biggest downfall of the game – a lack of courses. Once you master the controls and unlock everything, you can whip through the entire game in a matter of minutes.
With that being said, the game does a nice job of blending simple controls with challenging courses. Though it doesn’t have enough depth to be talked about as one of the elite iPhone games, Snowboarding TnT is still one of the better snowboarding iPhone apps you will play.
