Shaun White Skateboarding is, as the name indicates, a skateboarding video game featuring pro skater (and snowboarder) Shaun White. It was developed and published by Ubisoft and released for the PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the Wii in 2010.
Set in a dystopian world where the Big Brother-esque Ministry rules over all and demands people conform, Shaun White is the voice of rebellion as he uses his boarding techniques to free people's thoughts and color the grey landscape. Unfortunately, Shaun has been captured, but he manages to pass his magical skateboard to you, the player. With the leader of The Rising, Jonah, at your side, it's up to you to defeat the Ministry, save Shaun, and restore freedom to the populace with sick tricks and feeling the flow.
This game contains examples of:
- Badass in Distress: Shaun White opens the game skating to free people's minds before he's quickly captured. Rescuing him is one of the resistance's main goals.
- Bloodless Carnage: Getting diced by lasers or taking a bad fall reduces you to chunks of pixels.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Shaun isn't executed because the Ministry wants to study how he can reshape reality and apply it to their own needs.
- Cool Board: Shaun's skateboard is so cool it can free people's minds and color landscapes, and the player wields it to save the city.
- Dystopia: The game is based around how the Ministry has taken control of the people, forcing them to conform to a bland unemotional state and being constantly monitored. The only way to save the city is to skate around it, as which point colors start to appear and suddenly people no longer want to wear a tie.
- Evil Power Vacuum: Discussed and narrowly subverted in the ending, where resistance leader Jonah brags that he will take control in the Ministry's absence and calls you a bunch of idiots for falling for it... before joking that he was kidding and everything's fine.
- Heroic Mime: Your character doesn't say a word, in cutscenes or in gameplay.
- Implausible Boarding Skills: You can skate down buildings, across rooftops, and eventually in midair, letting you get just about anywhere in the city.
- La Résistance: The Rising is the main force of nonconformity and resistance, with the player eventually joining their numbers.
- Loading Screen: Loading screens are treated as Ministry propaganda that encourage you to empty your mind, conform, and accept the de-influencer devices.
- Product Placement: You strike out against an oppressive dystopian regime via the power of skateboarding, which brings color to a monochrome world... as well as Stride gum billboards and Wendy's restaurants, among others.
- Race Against the Clock: The final missions are timed for 5 minutes to stop the Ministry before its propaganda signals flood the city.
- Reality Warper: While at first you can only bring color back to the landscape and free people from the Ministry's control, you gain the ability to reshape the world around you, replacing Ministry states and buildings with resistance signals. This reflects in gameplay as you can create your own skating rails and ramps out of nothing and eventually learn to shape them, letting you skate just about anywhere as long as you have enough flow.
- Same Content, Different Rating: The game was rated E 10+ on Wii and T on the Xbox 360.
- Skate Heaven Is a Place on Earth: You can unlock "Shaun White Island" which is just off the coast of the city where the game is set, and is filled with challenges to test your skating mettle.
- Splash of Color: Generating enough flow will allow you to color the dreary landscape, turning grey-blues into more natural colors.
- Take Up My Sword: Shaun's last act before his imprisonment is passing his legendary skateboard to you, which frees your mind and lets you take up his cause.
