As you can guess by the title, SSX 3 is one in a line of games. This game is an excellent play for anybody who likes a snowboarding game. In my opinion, it’s one of the best (in fact probably THE best) snowboarding game out there. It’s quite simply snowboarding at its most excellent.

Graphics

Excellent. They are silky smooth, colourful, and realistic. Once you’re into the game you could be forgiven for thinking you’re actually there, it’s breathtaking, almost as though you’re really hurtling down the many miles of unbelievable ski slopes that have been rendered for your enjoyment. There’s realistic snow and lighting effects, distant mountain peaks, huge boulders, and tons of other scenery to really enhance the realism. The only let down is that sometimes you see a bit of mountain or something appear too close to you–the rendering distance can be a little short at times, but you are usually so immersed in the game that you don’t notice it anyway .

Gameplay

I absolutely love playing this game! When you first play SSX 3 you can feel seriously overwhelmed by it–there’s so much on show. It’s fast paced action, and its many achievable jumps and tricks are really appealing. It takes a little while to get used to the controls (although they are quite straightforward), and exactly when to push which button in order to execute the best jump or trick. It all comes with practice, though. The game has a number of characters to choose from, mostly all ‘hip’ looking people who are very ‘cool’ in their manner. I believe it isn’t particularly important who you pick, they all start out with the same bog standard abilities and scores, anyway. But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t capable of cool tricks and serious speed. There are a few game types to select from. They are available in single or multiplayer mode (split screen or linked). To play a game in multiplayer you have to unlock it in single player first. There’s the usual race mode and, of course, freestyle too. There are some great environments to race in, and they’re all set on one amazing mountain, which has three plateaus that get steeper, faster and more difficult as you progress. As you complete a level you also unlock a new opponent, who I guess you could call an end of level bad guy. Each level has many areas to ski on, consisting of some amazing jumps and hidden pathways. Unbelievably, some of these killer runs can take up to half an hour to complete! And, believe me, that’s a heck of a lot of downhill skiing for a system to render all in one go. But, amazingly, SSX 3 never jumps or skips while running; it’s all silky smooth, and the loading is streamed without your knowledge. You have to finish in the top three to progress onto the next race (or freestyle if you so wish). Many of the levels will really test your endurance and concentration. The only thing that bugs me is that sometimes you mess up a trick, or just jump totally in the wrong direction, then you land behind a barrier or something–and you’re stuffed, you can’t get out! But that’s only a minor quibble, the game happily allows you to restart at the beginning if you like, anyway. This is, of course, very useful if you make a total mess of your run. So no biggie really.

Sound

Very up tempo, banging beats, keep your adrenalin pulsing to make sure you’re ready to take on the mass slopes and great sensation of speed that the game creates. As with most games these days, the music is up to date and realistic, and there’s plenty of it throughout the game–never a moment of silence. The music really is very good. Just right for the type of game you’re playing.

Value

Hell yes! I could happily play it all day. Even if you have completed and unlocked everything, you can still go back through the game replaying older slopes and trying out new stuff. Try doing tricks in places you haven’t before. Or go for more points, or get better times. You can replay and replay. I haven’t got bored yet.

Conclusion

As I’m sure you can tell from the flow of this review, I LOVE IT! It’s the best skiing game I have played on any system. I used to be a fan of Supreme Snowboarding on the PC (never had a PS2 to play any of the older SSX games). SSX 3 quite simply blows Supreme out of the water; in comparison Supreme had crap graphics, slow loading times, dodgy music, and awful gameplay. This game really is great, if you like snowboarding games, buy it now! You’ll be stoked with your purchase.