For those who don’t know, I live in Africa. That means unless you live in the mountains you don’t get snow. Our climate doesn’t suit it. So, all the exposure I get to snow is through media consumption like movies and tv shows, or in this case, video games. When I was little, around 2007/2008 I had this indie game called Amped 3. Made by Access Software and published by 2K Games, it exposed me to a good snowboarding game that I haven’t really experienced since. The story was stupid and good, and the gameplay was fun. And earlier this year I found a game that was said to be in a similar style to the Amped franchise. Shredders.
Now I realize I’m a month late but oh well. Released on March 17th and made by FoamPunch, a small indie studio, Shredders has basically delivered. It does feel like Amped 3 and more. It’s passionate while also being goofy and unserious. You play as a character with your friend Scott who runs a YouTube channel called Shreddergedon and your main goal is to blow up and shoot some cool films. The dialogue is a little dated. Referencing YouTube and current memes like “suss”, yes, they spelt it with 2 Ss, but is also still fun. You meet a whole cast of quirky characters who are all their own unique little personas filled with energy and zany too. The story honestly is not the best but because it’s so meta and unserious I didn’t care. I was enjoying every jab they made and dumb conversation that happened.
Gameplay wise…I struggled a little at first. All the controls make sense, but having gotten back into the Skate franchise, I need to remember I can’t jump using the joysticks. I need to use the trigger. But you have your standard snowboard game things. Flips, spins, twists, snowmobiles, there’s also a pulley rope to launch you into whatever direction you’re going to at max speed. However, the controls can be tricky to master, and you sometimes struggle to do it. Spins aren’t always easy, rails are sometimes tricky to hit, and the animations can be a little wonky at times, but once you master those controls it’s like you get shot with dopamine every time you land a trick. It. Is. Fun.
Adding onto gameplay, this game has 2 cool features. It’s essentially the rewind feature in racing games. When you fail a move and bail, you get to either reset your entire line or go back a few meters and try again. This can be helpful during the game missions, or just wanting to land a specific trick on a specific spot, especially with those weird rails.
The location, the mountain itself, is so fun. Filled with jumps, rails and slopes where you can pick up speed make the possibilities endless. There’s a forest, and old factory, the park itself and a snowboarding arena. What would a snowboarding game be without its own X Games style area. The deep snow did seem to cause some issues for me. I played it on a Series X and it seems that too much deep snow mixed with regular snow at a fast speed made me have a load of frame drops, and it isn’t really a graphically demanding game, now maybe I just got a little unlucky but it is slightly concerning.
Overall, Shredders is an amazing snowboarding title. It’s a breath of fresh air into the sports genre and FoamPunch isn’t holding back in making it seem like they want to compete with Ubisoft’s Steep and other AAA titles of this type. It’s a love letter to snowboarding really. It’s available on Xbox and PC Game Pass if you want to try it out, but for $30, it’s well worth it if you’re looking for that fun open world experience in the sunny months when snow is just a dream… or if you live in the Southern Hemisphere too.
Written by Chris. J
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