It was a long time ago, in a very different world that I last entered into the realm of SSX. Long ago, when Xboxes were the size of a PS3, and catching all Poke’mon was an attainable life goal. I would enjoy hurling my cartoonish snowboarder down the disco lit slopes. As such I was looking forward to playing SSX, EA’s latest offering.

The plot for this game is a relatively simple one. You take the role of prominent extreme sports stars from the SSX universe and attempt to conquer the nine most deadly descents on Earth. Trying to race against Griff to achieve this feat, but there is no need to worry about this. You will be too caught up playing the game to become invested in the storyline.

SSX has the tagline, ‘Defy Reality, Own the World’, and it really lives up to this. The visuals are amazing and the game takes all the high flying and insane acrobatics we are all used to and repackages it for a new generation. It is a reboot of an older game. The bombastic and cartoonish visuals are gone, instead the developers have married the older style with new gritty look and sharper visuals. This is backed up with an excellent soundtrack, which alone makes the game worth having, and reminds me of the old Tony Hawk games.

The game is not just for veterans though and the tutorial levels are well designed enough that you feel like a snowboarding God. However, this feeling quickly disappears when the training wheels come off. Yet fear not for unlike other sports games the tricks in SSX are relatively easy to land. Simply release the buttons and your character snaps back to the default stance and sticks seemingly impossible landings. This is where reality is defied. Rails are also your friends, though they defy your expectations. They prove incredibly hard to jump onto, but they will drag you onto them with invisible tractor beams if you approach them even remotely head on.

Once you are through the tutorial runs, you will progress into the actual game. The regular game types include all the old classics, such as racing, point for point battling, as well as my new favourite game type, ‘survival’. Survival sees you catapulting yourself face first down a tree covered racetrack of death. Before you begin a survival run, the game calculates the odds of your survival. I could not help but lean back in my chair and in my worst Han Solo impression proclaim that you should never tell me the odds. The odds of course are altered by your choice of armour and gear. If you get tired of smashing your kidneys on trees, you can try out running an avalanche. The developers have also introduced a ‘rewind’ function. It allows you to rewind and try a section of your run again. However, the clock continues to run. So do not think you can rely on it. It does prove useful for getting yourself unstuck. I got stuck in snow drifts a few times within the first thirty minutes of gameplay, although this was a minor concern. In fact I actually found it amusing that I had gotten wedged under a log. Another great addition to the gameplay is the use of wing suits. They add another dimension to how the player is able to navigate the terrain. As well as allowing, you get in a few cheap laughs being a snowboarding Batman. Combining this with the rewind function can really save you some major headaches. We also see the same customisation options with players spending the credits they earn in runs, to purchase new gear, suits, and snowboards.

Straight away, I want to deal with the one fact that cost this game a star. The glorious thing about SSX Tricky was that it was a multiplayer game. Whilst SSX is quick to promote itself as a multiplayer game, there is a problem, and it is a large one. It is that it is only multiplayer online. Therefore, unlike its predecessor, SSX is not a true multiplayer game. SSX Tricky was in the category I call a ‘party game’. That is to say it was a game you could play with a few friends. This feature is eliminated in SSX. Turning to your friends, and saying, ‘hey you should all go home so we can play together’, to me just seems incredibly counter intuitive. It just felt like I was cheated, or rather being corralled into online play. Which I understand is a big model in game development today. I just feel that it betrayed some of the franchise's history. This aside there were very few negatives in terms of gameplay. I just would have liked to have some 'at home multiplayer. It made a small child cry. Yes the small child was me.

If I could say one thing about SSX, it would be that it is a game that inspires you to do better. Not in an encouraging way, but in the way that you would try harder in high school, just to spite the teacher you hated. ‘I don’t care if you think I only have twenty five percent survival probabilities. What would you know?’ Whenever I was beaten, I quickly found myself mashing the button sequence to restart the level. For this reason, I found the gameplay incredibly addictive, and had me coming back for more every time I wiped out.

Overall SSX is a fantastic game. Its graphics, soundtrack, and easy controls create an inviting and enjoyable gaming experience. The game modes not only entertain, but also challenge the player, maintaining that the game stays interesting. Whilst I will miss the party game atmosphere that I had loved its predecessor for. I feel that this is the game is the teenager grown into an adult, the grittier reboot of an old favourite.

3 out of 5