SSX On Tour [Xbox]

We're not entirely sure what SSX stands for, but it's no coincidence that a quick glance at the initials might mistakenly register the word "sex." Electronic Arts' snowboarding series is almost that much fun. The newest installment, On Tour, doesn't fix anything that ain't broke, but it brings a welcome new aesthetic and some nifty gameplay refinements. It also lets you split your snowboard down the middle -- figuratively, of course -- so that you're riding a pair of skis.

The actual gameplay isn't changed so much as turned up a notch and made more accessible. With a new blurring effect to convey speed, SSX can get even more white-knuckled and out-of-control than before. However, the new supertrick routines are much easier to use. As in the previous games, you need to fill your boost meter by doing conventional tricks, at which point it changes color to indicate that you're ready to do a "monster trick." But these only require a flick of the second analog controller, which moves SSX even further away from the more restrictive but more rewarding learning curve of the Tony Hawk series.

Monster tricks drop the game into a bullet-time style slo-mo, so it's easy to hold the trick until the precise moment before you land. It's also easier to relax for a moment and enjoy the outrageous animations of riders doing things like kicking off their skis and using them as headrests while they hurtle and spin through the air. Silly stuff, to be sure, but that's long been the point of SSX.

The new courses are packed with more detail, including pokey bunny slope skiers that you're supposed to buzz past or, better yet, knock down for extra points. Later in the game, there's even a Grand Theft Auto-style aggression meter that will bring out the ski patrol if you're too reckless. The tracks, which are still part of a seamless mountainside, have even more wide-ranging freedom than before, shot through with hidden detours, including back streets, clever rail grinding shortcuts, and breakaway snow fields that give way to icy caves. SSX remains a game with virtually no dead ends and a hundred potential paths to reach the same destination.

The campaign mode regularly doles out challenges and competitions, giving you a few to choose from at a time without any discernable pattern. You just keep playing, selecting whatever's available, and watching your rank rise among the 200 competitors. You can go back to do previous events for extra money, which you spend buying boards (or skis) that improve your speed, tricks, edging, and stability.

Since there are distinct racing, trick, and combo boards, it's too bad there's no easy way to swap among them. As it is, you have to go into the gear shop and scroll through a list to find the best board before joining an event. There's also no way to change from a skier to a snowboarder. Although the differences seem mainly cosmetic (skiers can do a slick pivot move), you'll have to maintain separate profiles if you want to try both methods.

You can purchase extra monster tricks and there are also extremely expensive "attributes," which are like super skills. For instance, Lightspeed Metabolism of the Galactic Jackaloupe increases the boost you get from doing tricks. But it'll cost you a cool million and a half. Since the early races net you just a few thousand dollars, you'll have to content yourself for a while with window shopping in the attributes section. There are also plenty of collectibles to encourage replay and exploration, including photographic moments called boasts, which take the form of hard-to-reach camera icons.

The quick play allows you to play a variety of different races, but it also lets you work your way down the entire mountain in freeride mode. There's nothing quite so tranquil as starting at the peak, selecting the "LoDown" mix, and taking 20 minutes to cruise seamlessly through all of On Tour 's levels at your own pace. You progress down through glaciers, past the courses, along an icy mountain road, twisting through log flumes, and then through town. In a way, the layout is a retread of the same areas the series has been doing all along, but it's much more detailed and wide open this time around.

It's disappointing that there's no online support, particularly since the much older (and more sophisticated) Amped snowboarding game has always had robust online support. But there are a variety of split-screen modes if you're willing to give up half your TV screen's real estate to another player. There are flat-out races, trick scoring competitions, and challenges such as which players can most quickly accumulate a certain amount of rail or air time. You can even tweak the rules for each player, which allows for helpful handicapping if you want to change wipeout recovery time, unlimited boost, or even board or ski quality.

The new front end takes a cue from the Napoleon Dynamite styling of a teenager's scrawling in the margins of his notebook. It's halfway between idle doodling and the mad genius of an undiscovered comic book artist, but it lends SSX a childishly innocent enthusiasm. The music is a great blend of old-school rock and contemporary alternative or hip-hop, ranging from Queens of the Stone Age, Blackalicious, and Jurassic 5 to Dio, Iron Maiden, and Def Leppard. Yes, Def Leppard.

SSX On Tour is set in a dream-like alpine idyll thousands of feet above and beyond the real world. It's one of those long-term compelling games, perfect for digging in and ranking up, practicing competitively, or just relaxing and letting gravity do its thing. It is as once a sport, a pastime, and one of the finest games you can enjoy at your own pace.