DESCRIPTION

Four world-class snowboarders lend their skills and trick styles to Activision's Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder extreme sports game for the Game Boy Advance. Released concurrently with the Game Boy Color and PlayStation 2 versions, gameplay is similar in concept to other "Pro" titles in the series, such as Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Shaun Palmer, six-time X-Games Gold Medalist, leads the charge down the powdered courses along with Shaun White, Tara Dakides, and Ingemar Backman.

Each boarder has nearly a dozen specialized jumps, slides, and lip tricks in addition to the basic nose grab, tail grab, hand plants, and slides. Scoring is based on combination moves, grabbing big air, and trick difficulty, with the basic premise (per the game manual) being "lots of tricks = lots of points." Calculation factors include deductions for sloppy landings and repeat tricks, with bonuses awarded for switching your stance and the height of jumps (monster air). Freestyle courses feature collectible bonus items like points, letters, and "bonkables" (debris like traffic cones and tires), as well as gaps for increasing scores.

Pro Snowboarder offers tutorial, career, free, and VS modes, locked levels and boards (unlocked by acquiring sponsors), and several styles (freestyle, Palmer X, and superpipe). Basic snowboarder controls are the same as in the GBC version, though lip tricks require fewer button pushes in the GBA version. Two players can compete head-to-head via Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide