SSX has returned, revamped and reinvented from the original of the beloved arcade franchise. A few familiar faces are back, the team of Zoe Payne, Moby, Psymon, Mac, Kaori and Elise banding together once more in this extreme snowboarding dream come true. This team's glory hungry mission this time around is that they want to be the first to descend the slopes of the most dangerous mountains in the world. As part of the team, it's you vs. mountain... good luck.

There are nine incredibly detailed, real life mountain ranges in this SSX, as opposed to the fictional ranges created in previous games. Through the use of NASA topographical satellite data, a Google Earth inspired interface has been born, with exaggerated versions of the Himalayas, Alps, Rockies, and more as part of the nine ranges; twenty seven mountains in total to explore and conquer. Each mountain face is a wide open terrain with multiple elevations and starting points, to which you are delivered by helicopter. This SSX has also introduced an innovative physics engine, which allows you to defy both the laws of reality and gravity as you race and trick your way through each level. Survival is equally as important as being the best snowboarder in this game, as you also have to battle against mother nature herself as she pits avalanches, freezing temperatures, white outs and more at you.

As you explore these vast terrains and the game itself, you will be able to take part in various fun elements; Race Drops, where you try to set the fastest time, Trick Drops, where you will try and score the most points, and Survival Drops, where you test yourself to descend the furthest down the mountain as you possibly can. A leaderboard keeps track of all of yours and your friends scores and times, even placing their ghosts when you play the same runs as they did, allowing you to see how well they performed. Upgrading the gear you possess definitely helps when it comes to being the best; you can improve your board and be able to ride faster, perform greater tricks, and maybe even survive the mountain for longer. You can also get your hands on wing suits, which enable you to glide for longer distances, and therefore allot you more time to perform tricks in. The tricks are mounted up in your Tricky meter, a combo system which gives you more points the more you can do in one trick, and the levels in this game are designed just to give you such opportunities.

An additional revolutionary feature of SSX is the River Net, a keenly developed recommendation Autolog engine that will help to guide players through the game. The River Net will allow you to “like” your favourite drops, as well as recommend new ones to you. Global Events is the main online section of the game, hosting the biggest and best social competitions that can hold up to 100, 000 participants. This allows the SSX universe to pit real players against each other in real time, with an event lasting from a single run to hours, and even up to days. When you place on the leaderboard that keeps track of the scores you will move up or down even when you're not playing the game, as it keeps itself up-to-date with both yours, and the world's progress. (Cat Emerson)