- Screenshot -

- Screenshot -

- Screenshot -

- Screenshot -

- Screenshot -

- Screenshot -

This is truly the best launch title for the PS2. It completly blows previous snowboarding games out of the water and then some. The graphics were crisp and clear, but weren't too colourful in comparison to some other launch titles. Eight characters to choose from, each with his/her own outfit, custom boards and trick book. An experience system let's you customize your characters abilities depending on what medal(s) he/she gets. A variety of different levels ranging from a Tokyo Megaplex to an untracked mountain side. The list just keeps going. If you own a PS2, I *HIGLY* advise you to get this game, even if you don't like sports/racing games.

So many, I don't know where to start! The eight characters are all different have each have their own unique feel. You need to find the right levels of edging, speed, stability and doing tricks in order to suceed. No two characters are alike attribute wise, so there's lots to choose from. If you gain a medal with your character, you get experience points which can then be traded in for attribute points. Very handy if your character is weak at doing tricks and you want to imporve that.

The variety of levels was just amazing. Set in different locations, some levels are more linear than others (in fact, some aren't linear at all). Here is a quick rundown of the different levels:

Snowdream: Your basic level, lots of jumps.
Elysium Alps: Whoa, lots of different directions and obstacles to avoid.
Merqury City Meltdown: A level right in the middle of New York.
Mesa Blanca: A rocky level, full of twists and turns.
Tokyo City Megaplex: Like being in a giant pin-ball machine.
Aloha Ice Jam: Snowboarding in Hawaii?
Pipedream: Don't worry about going off track, there isn't one.
untracked: Huge mountain course, no markings, fresh snow.

Now combine all those levels with the fact that it takes about 5 minutes to beat each one, and you got a pretty big level.

Now that you know how big the levels are, now i'm going to talk about the modes you can play on them. Well, for starters, there's your typical race. Start off at the gate, first one down wins. But now there's a twist: Not only is there no health (i.e. you can't die) but doing tricks is an almost VITAL part of winning any race. The bigger the trick, the more boost power you get. The more boost power you get, the faster and longer your boost will make you go. Along the courses there are always secret paths and powerups to be find. Among the powerups are the Trick Boost and the Speed Boost. Trick boost makes your trick worth more points (which in turn translates into more boost power) and makes the tricks much faster. The Speed boost is like having a full Boost power for about 10 seconds.

Now for the showoff competition. This one is played by yourself and as you have probably already guessed, the object of this mode is to score as many trick points as possible in the given amount of time. Everything is the same as the race mode, but instead of powerups there are snowflakes. What a snowflake can do is multiply your trick score by 2x, 3x or 5x. You can tell the difference between the three by the colour, yellow = 2x, orange = 3x and red = 5x. But the beauty is, if you hit, let's say, a orange and a red (3x and 5x) snowflake in one jump, if you land your trick will be worth 15x the number shown. This is probably one of the most fun modes, because you don't have to worry about coming in last and you can sort of take your time (there isn't unlimited time unfortunetly).

The two other modes of play are Warmup and Freeride. Warmup mode will teach you the basics of the game (it's not a movie, you have full control) and freeride just let's you ride down the hill so you can explore it without fear of being overtaken or running out of time.

Oh but that's not all. On top of all of that, they threw in a two player variation of everything except warmup mode! So now ou can grab a buddy and compete down hill or in air or just cruise down the track! The game mechanics are identical (not to mention flawless) and the physics engine(s) are pretty good (excluding the fact that you can land on your *insert body part here* and still survive).

Only one low in the whole game. The graphics weren't very colourful. That's it, that's the only low. Other than this minute flaw, this game is perfect.

Let me re-itterate what I said earlier. *ahem*IF YOU OWN A PS2 THEN THIS GAME IS A MUST HAVE! Ok, now I feel better. This game was absolutely breathtaking from the yellow snow to the full pipes (not half, full). If it wasn't for the somewhat bland graphics (the screenshots above aren't very good, but in-game, it all looks MUCH better) then this game would get a perfect 10.