SSX

SSX is a reboot of the legendary snowboarding series that, after years away, returned to adrenaline-fueled descents but placed them in a far harsher setting. Instead of colorful, fantastical tracks, you ride real mountain ranges from around the world, modeled on actual elevation data, which means huge, steep, and disorienting slopes. The main campaign is built around nine of the planet's most dangerous descents, and each one has its own hazard, from a raging blizzard through pitch-black night to a lack of oxygen at high altitude.

The riding itself keeps the arcade foundation that made the series famous. Boost fills up through tricks and rotations, landings are rewarded for smoothness, and combos chain together to utterly absurd heights. There's also specialized gear, such as a wingsuit for gliding between cliffs or an ice axe for grabbing onto an icy wall. Disciplines are split into pure races, trick competitions, and survival, and on top of that the game features a system that, instead of direct online races, sends other players' ghosts down the slope and lets you compete for leaderboard position practically nonstop.

On Xbox 360 the game looks very impressive; vast snow-covered mountains with long sightlines and a fast camera right behind the rider create the sense of tremendous speed that has always defined the series. The music dynamically adapts to the riding, and at full boost the track kicks in completely, a detail that adds a lot to the experience. Reviews were largely favorable, with the game praised for returning to a proper feel of riding, though some fans regretted the loss of the colorful, exaggeratedly comic-book spirit of the older entries. Today it stands as the last great snowboarding title of its kind, and in a genre that has practically disappeared, it feels all the more valuable. A descent through pitch darkness with only a single headlamp, or a jump after which you fly for a full minute in a wingsuit above a valley, ranks among the strongest moments that generation of consoles offered in sports games.