Xbox 360 Critic Reviews

The overall takeaway I get while playing SSX: sometimes EA gets it exactly right. Sometimes their experience from a dozen misguided games, and a half dozen decent games, and two or three really good games is distilled into one perfect example of how some AAA titles are every bit as awesome as they're supposed to be.

There have been a lot of imposters trying to corner the snowboarding market these past years, most of them going for realism over fun, but SSX is back and EA Sports continues to prove that if you want the most insane, over-the-top racing and death-defying stunts on the planet (or at least in nine locations on the planet) then you need look no further than SSX. This is snowboarding for the next-generation!

There's no reason to be worried about SSX. After a seven year hiatus, Electronic Arts has decided to retool their best extreme sports franchise. The result is a fast-paced action experience that offers an impressive collection of real life mountains to conquer. The only thing missing is a real multiplayer mode.

This is what happens when you don't just put the game out every year, but spend your time crafting it, creating the ultimate experience. SSX redefines snowboarding games, raises the bar for the genre, then backflips over it.

EA Sports has itself one expertly designed and well put together game with SSX. The huge, multi-path runs and silky smooth controls more than offset any minor stumbles.

As a series reboot this is perfectly acceptable, but it's the new and innovative online aspects that make SSX feel absolutely superb. Packed to the brim with clever ideas, SSX is a truly unmissable surprise. While most other online modes feel like painting-by-numbers, SSX shrugs and tries something refreshingly different. This isn't just brave - it's brilliant.

There's nothing better than completing a multi-million point combo after tricking off of a helicopter while being chased by a massive avalanche – it's reasons like this that we're happy to say, "Welcome back, SSX, we've missed you."

Few series have enjoyed such an assured and enjoyable update in the current generation of consoles. Far from being a weary evolution, SSX is a vibrant, eager advance for the Cool Boarder/Tony Hawk's lineage of extreme sports video games. EA Canada has effortlessly married the score-attack DNA of arcade gaming's earliest days with some of the most interesting and exciting multiplayer design seen in the past few years. A towering achievement then, as tall as the mountains it so diligently reconstructs.

SSX has returned bigger and better than ever. You can tell the development team took great care to bring their vision to life and they have given us the best SSX game to date.

"Awesome" doesn't quite cut it. This game is crazy, light-speed fast, and has some brilliant gameplay ideas.