SSX On Tour review

Whether it's clouting rival boarders in mid-air, blazing trails of glorious pointage on the Super Pipe or simply whopping your mates in head-to-head, SSX is even more fun than a day out with Father Christmas and his magical reindeer. We imagine.

On Tour's new faux-MTV front end is simply awesome, although whichever numpty came up with the 'save after every race' mechanism deserves a snowball in the nuts.

Customisation is always appreciated, and On Tour excels in this area, but we still miss playing as - or at least competing against - SSX legends like Mac, Zoe and the squeaky Kaori (well... perhaps not her) from the offset.

Instead, On Tour asks you to design your own boarder/skier from scratch, before proving yourself on off-piste shred challenges (more akin to a tutorial than rite of passage).

Amass enough hype and you'll soar up the alpine rankings, culminating in showdowns with old SSX heroes and villains. Only in its later stages does On Tour begin to feel like the classic we know and love, which is a shame. While the horrid 'straying out of bounds' that plagued SSX3 has been remedied, we found ourselves pounding square to recover from tumbles far more than we'd have liked.

Courses are also more deceptive/vicious than before, so beware of priming for a leap before flying arse over tit when said 'jump' turns out to be more of a 'bump'.

That said, On Tour still packs in more extreme thrills than a naked base jump from the summit of Mont Blanc. Hurtling off ledges and cramming in one more tweaked tail blunt before impact remains one of our great gaming joys.

On Tour does, however, stray away from the acid-trip qualities of Trickiness and moves towards something approaching realism (yawn), meaning it also loses that quintessential SSX magic.

Still preferable to either Amped or 1080, On Tour - though not quite an essential purchase - is still very much a worthwhile one.

SSX On Tour is out for PS2, Xbox and Gamecube now and will be released for PSP on 28 October