SSX On Tour Hands-On

Skiers and Snowboarders unite! We go hands-on with EA's stylish SSX On Tour.

EA dropped by today to give us a little taste of SSX On Tour, the stylish new installment in the popular boarding series. Compared to the rest of the SSX series, On Tour is a whole new beast. For starters, the art style has taken a completely new direction--the menu interface has been entirely redesigned with black and white sketchbook drawings that add much more personality and flare to the game as a whole. And, for the first time in the series, players can grab their poles and strap on a pair of skis to compete with the big boarders. Pulling off tricks on either snowboard or skis is done with similar button presses so as not to discourage players from ditching their board or vice versa.

SSX On Tour lets gamers craft up a custom rider/skier to work their way up to the top of the ranks to become the ultimate black-diamond star. You can spice up your On Tour ego with a slew of customizable features including hairstyles, licensed snow gear and more. Reputation is always on the line, so you'll not only have to win the race or events at hand, but look good and pull off plenty of tricks to boot.

New off-track races really test your navigation skills in events like Shred Challenges. In fact, we spent a hefty amount of time pummeling into an unsightly tree now and then, but we said it was just an attempt to...ahem...test out our rider's helmet strength. Twelve new tracks can be cut up during day or night, and the now crowded ski slopes make certain runs a populated affair.

The SSX engine has been nicely touched up and tweaked, and is running seamlessly on PS2. Furthermore, a fancy blur effect has been added to accentuate super speed and positional audio of trees and other objects whizzing by.

If all our expectations are met, SSX On Tour should shred the slopes when it ships this October. Until then, soak up all our powdery-fresh new screenshots.

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