This is the sequel to the best extreme sports game ever made. Is it better than it? Well no, it's not the best extreme sports game ever made. Is it very good though? Yeah. It is.

SSX3 further refines the gameplay of Tricky by fixing the rail collision detection (thank you), adding grind-tricks (nice!) and adding the ability to board-press on the Right Stick (or manualling, for all the Tony Hawk heads out there). It also introduces the "SUPER Uber" trick meter system, which is effectively the original "Tricky" meter but with a few extra steps. Getting "Uber" means you have a few less-impressive-but-still-cool moves until you land four tricks and then enter the "SUPER Uber" phase, where you can now do the tricks Tricky let you do. Personally I'd cut the middleman here and just let me do the coolest tricks, but I get it for depth's sake. Overall, good additions that help in building combos and keeping your involvement high.

The real bread and butter of SSX3 isn't it's gameplay refinements though, and moreso in it's level design. The game introduces you to BIG Mountain: a set of three peaks on a massive single map with a constant downhill trajectory, and several spots amongst each peak to compete in races and freestyle (points-building) events. The transitions are smooth and natural and the environments are treacherous with all kinds of new hazards to watch out for like avalanches, falling icecicles etc, making the mountain feel more alive than anything ever before. Despite this, I will say the single mountain range really lacks the variety and color Tricky's maps did. Very impressive for 2003 though, I will give that. It all loaded seamlessly too!

Many of the characters from the previous two games return and still resemble themselves, but as a whole no longer feel as over-the-top, and most of the more extreme personalities like Eddie sadly got the boot (Psymon, however, thankfully stays). Character interactions with each other feel much more reigned in than last time too, which may partly be because you no longer have the "rival" system (huge bummer), but at least your character still has a rival at all. In it's place is a new customization system, where you win races/freestyles to gain money and buy new clothes/boards/haircuts, up your stat points, or buy new tricks (!!). Which is pretty cool, I gotta admit.

The new radio host DJ Atomika runs the soundtrack (under the title "Radio BIG") and between tracks gives hints and tips about the peaks, gossips about the character you're playing as a little, and overall gives the game a very MTV Sports coverage energy about how life is on the mountain. I like him, he's got a very friendly energy I enjoy and he seems well-liked amongst SSX fans, but I will admit he's a little sleepy and lacks the loud punchy showmanship of the first two games's DJ Rahzel. The soundtrack itself also introduces more rock and hiphop, probably to actively compete with the Tony Hawk games. There's still SSX's classic electronica bent flowing through at times, but it's definitely a different vibe overall that they went with here.

Overall I like this game a lot, but I'm a little mixed. It's widely regarded as the best game in the franchise, and also apparently sold the best. It's a great game, don't get me wrong! But I can't help but miss the variety in maps from past entries, and I feel it's interest in reigning it's personality in / taking it a tad more seriously was what eventually led the SSX franchise down the path of eroding into nothingness. I don't guess I should blame it for that though. If I'm not gonna blame Sonic Adventure for how Sonic fell down a cliff (despite introducing the ideas that got him there), neither should I do that to SSX3.

You (yes, you) should definitely play it some time. You may even like it the most! So yeah. Check it out. That's all for now in this game review. I've been DJ Azookara. And you're tuned to Radio BIG.

Not a fan of sports games. I can see why people like this, but it isn't for me.

Having to repeat the same race three times in a row to progress is annoying, especially since you can't save between sessions.

I was mostly interested in the exploration aspect of SSX 3 and it failed to deliver. There are lots of off-limits areas. It's hard to feel like you're exploring when you can only go downhill/in one direction without needing to fast travel. The "extra/hidden" areas are literally signposted, so there's no real sense of discovery.

The graphics look good on Xbox One/Series X given the game's age. The character models are a bit dated, though.

SSX 3 perfectly builds upon the groundwork of the previous two games by adding interconnected tracks, a nice progression system, and some nice gameplay improvements!

SSX 3 might lose the more zany humor that Tricky has, but it has a nice controlled humor I would say. Nothing too off the rails (pun, indeed intended)! You get some fun unlockable accessories for your character that can help in this regard though! One such example is a pumpkin head. Grand comedic stuff while snowboarding down Peak 1, 2, or 3!

The progression is the best in the series I tend to believe slightly over Tricky. It's a nice cohesive progression compared to unlocking the next level after a Gold medal or such. For each Peak of the mountain, you have different progression systems, such as the usual races and freestyle type of events.

However, in SSX 3 they introduced collectibles and challenges throughout each Peak that can help you gain more medals and earnings in that regard!

After a set of two or three races or freestyle events, you get to face off against the rival you have in the Peak which changes for each section. You face off against them through either whichever you clear first, the Rival Race or the Freestyle Challenge of a certain track. After either of those, you get a certain time to beat for the whole Peak, so some of those tracks that you went through prior, you get to go through them again as one cohesive track! And the same goes for the Freestyle events as well! You get a certain point total Goal that you have to eclipse through the whole Peak. My only qualm about these last goals, or time, oriented events is that you might finish the goal, but the medal you get is a Bronze, it's not too clear as to how you could achieve a Gold. It's a bit ubiquitous as to that. So you just need to try again and again.

BUT! When you get to Peak 3, you don't get the luxury of facing your rival in a one-peak fashion. You must beat your rival through the whole Mountain! All three peaks combine into one track that you must beat your rival through a race or freestyle event! It's a true culmination of the entire journey that you've gone through up until now! You better settle in for them since they can take up a good chunk of time too!

And if you fall in any situation, one of the gameplay improvements is being able to try and tap a button quickly enough to recover as fast as possible to not lose too much ground!

A thing that I enjoyed was that the medals you earned in Freestyle events were not guaranteed to stay the same. You get messages from the Radio announcer, DJ Atomika, saying that someone beat your score on a certain track, go get it back!

Speaking of DJ Atomika, I enjoyed his presence and I find him charming and whimsical in his segments! Not as grand as Rahzel, but you can't really beat a legend such as him.

SSX 3 and Tricky are the literal Peaks of this franchise. Play them both. Love them both. And most importantly, Uber Trick till your body crashes into snow.

Being a fan of Tony Hawk, I decided to take the plunge into the snow this time after hearing all about how great SSX Tricky was... and wow... this game blew me away.

This is literally an "open world" game where the mountain is your playground. You'd never expect a snowboarding game of all things to deal with exploration and progression, but here it is.

An utterly fantastic extreme sports game. I hovered between a 4.5 or 5 star rating, but I have to go with my gut here - it is just a perfect snowboarding game.

EA Sports (in this case EA Sports BIG), a laughingstock nowadays, used to release banger after banger back in the day...

This is probably the peak of the SSX series in terms of quality. I played the Xbox version via backwards compatibility on my Xbox One X and it was a pleasant surprise for me in terms of controls (considering I didn't really like Blur's Wii controls) The graphics also look better than even Blur and the game released 4 years before that (SSX 3 was in 2003 and Blur was in 2007. Plus, you got a whole variety of snowboarders to choose from and skate as. As a bonus, you still get the trailers for 3 games including NBA Street Vol. 2, Need for Speed: Underground and NFL Street 1 which is a bonus (despite these 3 aren't backwards compatible with Xbox One which is pretty ironic). Get this awesome snowboarding game and the peak of the SSX series on PlayStation 2, GameCube, or the original Xbox from 2001 (the version I played via backwards compatibility). Total recommendation from me. 5/5.

unbelievably cool. super tight controls, even if i did feel my hands cramping after playing for a while. fantastic soundtrack. the soundtrack will almost like muffle and drop out when you take massive air and come back in as soon as you land which is super atmospheric. i really adore this

some of the peak 3 stuff is a little shit but this is basically like if EA Skate was influenced by anime instead of NWA. how the hell was EA pumping out these genuinely fantastic extreme sports games on the reg 15-20 years ago

One of the more interesting phenomenons in gaming is when a series releases two consecutive games with wildly different philosophies. The most famous of these situations would likely be Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask, but just as interesting-although less discussed-is the dichotomy between SSX's 2nd and 3rd installment; SSX Tricky & SSX 3. While the former stuck much to the original SSX's model of extreme, whacky racing from all around the world, SSX 3 opted for a new approach; one continuous mountain to improve your skills upon in an effort to reach the summit. For SSX, that meant that for the first time, gameplay was freed from its rather linear nature of racing and performing tricks.

The phrase "open-world" might seem like an odd one to apply to an extreme sports title, but the core sense of a world waiting to be explored is what SSX 3 does so well. Everything in SSX 3 takes place in the same setting, offering a sense of connectivity and progress that other extreme sports games lack. Progression itself is varied; other than winning races and slopestyle events, there are earnings goals and freeride challenges you can complete which also give rewards and unlock further events. There's also the mountain in general, which contains 3 peaks, each with their own races and freestyle events. A unified setting does somewhat limit the amount of variety and personality courses can contain, it's a sacrifice well worth making for the sense of immersion the mountain creates. Most impressive are the backcountry sections, which are untracked areas with plenty of traversal options; you're likely to ride down them a dozen times before discovering every path they have to offer. The final setting makes use of them by taking you all the way from the summit to the bottom of the mountain, lasting over 25 minutes with multiple race zones, while requiring no loading. This was incredibly impressive in 2003, and it's still quite remarkable today.

What helps tie all this immersion together, though, is the voiceover work of DJ Atomika. It's impossible to understate how much this element brings to the game. The DJ will constantly respond to the player's actions and victories, while also offering plenty of irrelevant anecdotes which do nothing more than give the game a tremendous amount of heart and personality; it's an inclusion which would be beneficial to almost every sports game. And when combined with SSX Tricky's already well-refined gameplay, SSX 3 comes out as a refreshingly unique title to experience almost 20 years post its release. In fact, its aged quite well in all regards; controls are still as good as ever, and the game feels great to play. Racing and slopestyle are back from previous entries, as well as new Big Air and Super Pipe events, which both add to the SSX experience and help to further vary the gameplay. It hasn't lost a single step to the passage of time, and outside of its passable graphics, it's a snowboarding game that has no trouble standing up to modern games and, in many ways, outpacing them.

The extra challenges and modes to complete makes SSX 3 the bulkiest title in the series to date, which is excellent news for those who want more of the action. Those extra areas are where the gameplay can drop a bit in quality though, which makes 100%ing the game feel like a bit of a drag sometimes. A couple of the challenges in free ride mode, mainly any involving passing through gates or collecting items, can be quite bothersome due to the often inconsistent hitboxes. The collectable snowflakes are nice to encourage exploration, but would seriously benefit from some kind of map to track which ones you've found and which you haven't. There's also the difficulty, which starts out fine, but doesn't increase fast enough to keep up with the player's progression. This is especially noticeable in the final slopestyle and race events, which fail to deliver on their epicness somewhat due to the lack of challenge involved with them. They're still very fun to playthrough no doubt, but an optional "final boss" like event would have fit the occasion much more. By the time you've reached that point, though, you've experienced dozens of hours of excellent gameplay, and it's unlikely to shift your opinion on the game much.

SSX 3 isn't discussed as much as its predecessor in the modern day, and that's a shame, because there's enough adoration to go around. Luckily, though, there's nothing missing from this game that was there upon its release in 2003; it remains one of the greatest snowboarding games of all time, and a shining example to modern day titles as to what the potential of the sports genre truly is. It's a wildly innovative title from a series that could have just played it safe, and it's all the better for it. SSX 3 represents a creative peak for the franchise which has still yet to be matched to this day; good thing this game feels just as good to play as the day it came out.