Are you ready to hit some sky high jumps and grind some gnarly rails? SSX has all that and more in store for you. The fifth installment of the SSX franchise is made by EA Canada. The story mode is based upon Team SSX who is trying to complete races and points challenges on nine Deadly Descents. There are multiple types of challenges you will do from racing for the best time to trying to see who can rack up the most points doing different trick combinations. They also have a survival type mode where you try to avoid different hazards such as fallen trees and jagged pipes. You have to try to affect your armor as less as possible until you hit the finish line.
Multiplayer will have you playing this game for hours. There are countless regions of the world with different mountains you can choose to snowboard down. You not only have to beat our CPU in points and race times, but it also lets you see the shadows of your friends who have done the same run. They can challenge you to beat their time or score through money bets. Global events in the online feature have the challenges in the game always changing, so just when you thought you have conquered it all, there will always be a new challenge for you. You do not get to earn the same medals that people who have the online pass earn, but they do not really amount to much anyway. If you decide you want the medals in the future, then all you have to do is buy the online pass and all the prior medals you should have won in the past will show up on your account.
The graphics and the soundtrack on this game make it even more entertaining. You will be amazed how many things you can grind from tree stumps and large piping to helicopters hovering over your jumps waiting for you to grind its landing skids. I did not have high hopes for another snowboarding title after Shaun White snowboarding had been so disappointing, but I think SSX has sucked me right back in to the extreme sports genre!
9 out of 10