SSX 3 review (Game Boy Advance)

In the game's main mode, you choose a rider and then pick the events you wish to participate in from a map. Events include race, super pipe, slopestyle, big air, and rival race. The nonrace events are competitions to see who can earn the most points. The main differences between them are the types of courses used. In super pipe and big air, you're performing tricks in a giant halfpipe or on a small section of the mountain that's littered with ramps. In slopestyle, the courses are just as long as those used for races, except you're trying to score the most points possible. If you don't want to compete against CPU opponents, there are also anywhere between three and six big challenges per course that you can run. Every time you win an event or complete a big challenge, you'll earn money that you can use to purchase upgrades for your rider in the form of attribute bonuses, boards, or clothing.

The biggest drawback to the way the upgrade system is set up is that you can't do that much with a rider who has baseline settings. In the beginning, the controls are slow to respond and tricks take forever to execute. The CPU's riders also start out with better attributes, which means that you probably won't win many events early on either. Once you eat a few losses and complete some of the big challenges, though, you'll have the funds available to install upgrades that will make your rider move more quickly and perform tricks faster. All in all, you'll need to put in a good half hour before you're able to pull off many of the moves that give the game its energy.

Most players will get their fair shares of play time from SSX 3. You can replay any of the events in the capture-the-mountain mode as many times as you'd like. This is great if you're saving up for a new board or you find yourself having fun with a particular event. There's also a quick play mode, which doesn't have all of the qualifying rounds that the main mode does. Other nice features include a battery save that records high scores, in addition to the cash and prizes you earn. There's also a GameCube link option, which allows you to transfer money between the GBA and GameCube versions of the game. Furthermore, there's and a link mode that allows you and a friend to compete against one another in any of the game's 12 events.

Usually, when a GBA game looks as nice as SSX 3 does graphically, certain other aspects tend to suffer. Even though SSX 3 comes together pretty well, it's easy to see where the developers cut corners. The CPU opponents are buggy and will often ski directly into trees or boulders that ought to be easily avoided. Despite such wild behavior, you'll never experience a situation where the CPU is less than a few seconds off of the pace. That's because the CPU opponents teleport in right behind you whenever your lead gets too big. The game's soundtrack also leaves much to be desired. The music consists of a set of 10 clips that feature a number of popular alternative musicians, but the clips are short and loop constantly. The speech clips that play whenever you complete a trick are somewhat snazzy, but the rest of the sound effects are an assortment of thuds and skids that just merely do the job.

Since there aren't that many snowboarding games available for the Game Boy Advance, you pretty much have to get SSX 3 if you want to play a snowboarding game on the go. It may be missing a few features from the console versions, and some of its rough edges are difficult to ignore, but overall, the sexy graphics and fun design make for a pleasant experience.