Great news for snowboarding fans, as Shredders’ launch is just weeks away
Announced during the Xbox/Bethesda show last year, Shredders has had its release date revealed after a new page appeared in the Xbox Store – 17th March 2022 is the date to add to your diary.
The Xbox First (timed exclusive, maybe?) snowboarding game is looking great from early impressions, taking inspiration from Amped and other classic snowboarding games like SSX. Similar to Rider’s Republic and Steep, Shredders is an MMO experience, where most of the other riders you see on the slopes will be real players.
Of particular note is that Shredders is only coming to Series X|S consoles, meaning they can fully harness the power of the new consoles and bring high-fps gameplay, short load times and experiences that otherwise wouldn’t be possible into the game.
The gameplay looks incredibly smooth and the animations of the rider look natural and realistic. The Shredders team enlisted help from snowboarding professionals to make sure that, even though exaggerated, the moves are based on real tricks. It’s a similar story with the enormous mountain; It’s very lifelike in appearance, and the elements are similar to those you’d find IRL, but they’ve increased the number of elements and added some insanely big jumps and rails to keep it exciting.
The controls look like they could take some getting used to, with one stick controlling your rider and the other the board, but the fluidity of the moves is staggering – check out this developer run-through to see it in action:
Shredders also has story elements, which adds some direction to the gameplay:
“While making another goofball video at the Frozen Wood resort, brand ambassador Lisa makes an offer for a couple of sponsored videos. She gives you a glimpse of a whole new world of snowboarding, professional riders, snowmobiles and epic features to shred. An invitational has attracted a whole bunch of pro-riders to the area, and with Lisa’s help you have a chance to meet some of them, learn a move or two, and possibly even get a chance to join them in the kick-ass invitational.”
This is clearly a game from a passionate team, and it’s likely to appeal to not only snowboarding fans but also gamers in general, especially as it’s coming to Game Pass.
“A love letter to snowboarding, Shredders takes inspiration from a whole bunch of awesome snowboarding films, the Amped games from the original Xbox, and the snowboarding heroes on Instagram. Shredders is a project fed by passion and built to shine on Xbox Series X|S.”
