Shaun White Snowboarding - Multiplayer, Snowballs, and Bear Suits

There's little more enticing for a snowboarder than having sole access to a huge mountain, with ramps made out of tightly packed snow and bottomless caverns providing opportunities to perform all sorts of fancy spins and flips. But after a few hours of taking the ski lift by yourself and performing hellacious tricks with no one watching, you'll feel cold, wet, and awfully lonely. Luckily for Shaun White, he doesn't go anywhere without his posse tightly in tow. We had a chance to create some snow angels with pals in the multiplayer mode of this upcoming winter adventure, and came away pining for a cup of hot chocolate.

There are four different snow-covered mountains that serve as your freezing playgrounds in Shaun White Snowboarding: Park City, Japan, Europe, and Alaska. We aren't able to talk about the Japanese course at this time (check our full review for that), but the other mountains are fair game. You'll encounter lots of snow, a few abandoned cabins, and a terrifying outbreak of Dutch elm disease. Don't worry; all those fallen trees haven't died in vain. You can grind them, which makes their painful deaths more than worth it.

Given that you and your friends have an entire mountain to yourselves, you're free to grind and flip without any guiding structure. There are ski lifts to whisk you away to various parts of the mountain, or you can just hop on a private helicopter (Shaun White is stupid rich) and fly straight to the top. Getting wicked air off a mound of snow is always more fun with friends, but the real reason to invite your buddies is because of the glorious snowball fights that invariably break out when more than two people are together in the snow. Jumping off a ramp sure is fun, but it's even more fun smacking your pal in the back, causing him or her to fly face-first into an icy wall.

If you get tired of mercilessly pelting your friends with balls of frozen water (though it takes an awfully long time to tire of such a pristine activity), there are a few actual events scattered around the mountain. The most basic of these diversions is Rat Race, a standard race down the mountain. Though this takes place on a winding course, you're free to cut straight across the snowy walls and make a beeline for the finish line if you choose. Sure, you'll be a cheater and draw a fair share of snowballs from your rule-abiding friends, but if you can glide unscathed to the finish line, you'll be the one holding the metaphorical victory trophy.

King of the Hill mode requires a little more skill. It's still a race down an unforgiving mountain, but you have to continually pull off tricks while flying down as fast as gravity will allow. You'll have to master a tricky respect-to-time ratio that will quickly diminish if you go for stretches without taking air and spinning like a human top. Ground Tricking is the mode to fill your jibbing needs. All of those rotting trees that are lining the mountains come in handy here; you'll need to grind their sloughing bark to rack up the points. Air Time demands that you stay above the earth's surface for as long as possible. You'll have to rocket off of ramps here (you can't just hop off the ground) to keep your board from touching snow. The person who ignores gravity's all-too-strict laws for the longest time wins.

The final mode we had a chance to compete in is officially called Death Race, but is affectionately referred to as Bear Racin'. Once again, you have to ride down the mountain in the shortest time possible, but, unlike Rat Race, there are actual rules to follow. For instance, you can't just ignore the course entirely and shoot for the finish line. No, there are fancy gates to burst through, keeping everyone on the same path. Second, you have to actually focus on racing and not chucking snowballs to trip up your friends. If you do "accidentally" hit your friend in the back when he or she is trying to fly off of a ramp, you'll certainly smile but you'll also find a DQ stamped next to your name and a giant bear suit enveloping your body. That's right, you're actually punished with a super cool-looking outfit--as if that's an adequate deterrent for snuffing snowball fights.

If you're going to be cold and wet, you might as well invite your friends along for the ride. There aren't a lot of different modes to compete in, but there are bear suits and snowballs, lots and lots of snowballs. Check out the full review for Shaun White Snowboarding the week it comes out, November 16h.