Snowboard (and Skateboard, Mountain Bike, Surfing...) videogames have always been about providing the gamer with the ability to go where they can't go in reality. Why, for example, would you be playing a snowboarding game if you could actually go outside and do it? Whether the reason is lack of ability, pure cowardice or that there's just no snow, the idea is that you can pick up a controller, flick on the telly and be carving down the mountain in no time flat. SSX 3 takes this concept about a billion times further, with impossible tracks and a series of completely invincible characters to carve them with. The idea is to perform a series of super human maneouvers at high speed and rack up enormous points as you chain all your fancy tricks together into massive combos. At least, that's the idea!

SSX 3 is the sequel to 2001's SSX Tricky - itself a sequel to SSX, one of the PlayStation 2's launch titles. Distancing itself from games like 1080° (where the idea is to closely simulate reality), SSX was, from the beginning, all about taking the gamer where a real snowboarder could never go. With jumps that would put a real person into orbit and tricks that would land them in intensive care, you can expect to crash through scenery, punch out other boarders and take impossible shortcuts - all in your quest to conquer the mountain.

For the first time, SSX is set entirely on the slopes of a single mountain. You start at the lowest peak, peak 1, and must complete a series (the order and actual content of which is your choice - more on that in a minute) of events in order to progress up the mountain to the ultimate challenge, peak 3.

Each mountain has a number of different events for you to compete in. You can choose the order that you tackle them in and the game will seamlessly flow around your selections to make it look like that's how the competition was structured all along - propelling you through the "story" (it's pretty loose, but hey - this is a sports game - we don't need no stinkin' story!) as you seek to challenge the master of each peak for supremacy. To get there, you will need to achieve at least one of the many different techniques of progressing. You can earn a set amount of cash, come at least third in every race or slope style (basically, get points by doing neat tricks within the time limit) or big air events, etc. This ability to proceed through the game any way you choose is a godsend for people who can rack up the points but always lose at races or those that just can't string a combo together to save themselves but are ace at finding shortcuts. Good stuff, two thumbs up here.