Certainly a great snowboarding game, best SSX, better than one, tricky, on tour and Blur.
Game play-
Great game play, its snowboarding… but unrealistic and I usually don't like unrealistic sport games but this is just great. Okay, so, basically, what you got to do is, either, race or perform tricks depending on the event :D well... The "Conquer the mountain" is the main mode in the game, where you perform in events and challenges, get money, upgrade your character, customise his costume, collect a vast majority of rewards and so on. For the actual game play, the controls are simple, x to jump, steer with analogue, square to boost, combination of L's, R's and square for a vast trick library, that's it really, as for the tricks, they look very kool but the "uber" tricks are very unrealistic, involving throwing the board about, spinning it around necks, dancing on it, real stupid things, but look really kool :D
The kool thing I like about "Conquer the mountain though is the layout of the three peaks on the mountain, it all takes place on the same mountain, with three separate peaks, starting on the lower peak, you get the little ramped, smooth, chilled courses and a nice city track at the bottom, then the second, with bigger ramps and more obstacles, you even start experiencing, slight storms with trees falling over and stuff, but in peak three, you got to watch out, there are giant storms blowing billboards about and giant ice chunks falling creating giant gaps and all that, the best bit of the mountain though is the top of the peaks "the back country" how, its all untouched snow, with like no man made ramps and no billboards and railings, its all natural.
There are a lot of different game modes, races, of course, where you simply race to get to the bottom of track first before your opponent's, slope style where you get to the bottom performing kool tricks getting more points then your opponent's, big air, which is just like, 3 or 4 ramps where you got to do the biggest tricks possible, super pipe, just a half pipe where once again, got to get most points. There are big challenges, where you do certain challenges for money or you can just free ride down the mountain, collecting these bonus snowflake things for money or what have you.
Difficulty-
Just right, great difficulty, nice and easy at start to get used to then as you upgrade your stats it gets harder as you progress up the mountain. Also the controls are really easy to get used to so you know how to do everything very soon.
Time spent playing-
I've been playing, around 60, 70 hours, it takes around 10 hours to complete the main events, then another 10 hours to complete conquer the mountain 100 percent, but you can complete it with more than one character so you can upgrade all of them.
Sound-
Brilliant… from the character voice overs to the hard ice crackling to smooth slide of the soft snow or even the hard thud! After you hit a tree :D but yeh, the script is very good with each character saying loads of different funny things, including DJ atomika on radio BIG, he's a funny guy, and a good DJ.
Music-
One of the best things about the game, the music is terrific. From the "jerk it out" by the ceasers, fat boy slim, swollen members, red hot chilly peppers, placebo, finger eleven, I love so many songs off this game, and it suits the game perfectly, just free riding down the backcountry, great sounds, terrific music, the game just has a great atmosphere about it.
Characters-
I love the characters on the game, know matter what type of person you are, you will have a favourite, maybe two, from the mad, insane, pain loving freak, to the kool, chilled, dude or even the music loving, short tempered, competitor. I prefer Psymon and Moby, Psymon is the pain loving freak who is pretty funny at times and Moby, the English dude, who is well kool, and funny sometimes. Although, it could have done with the create a boarder from on tour.
Graphics-
There as good as they need to be, the snow looks… like snow, the trees and scenery are great, but what I really like is the backgrounds, there great, I mean, you can see the blue sky with some clouds and then other mountains far away, it just really helps the great atmosphere too.
Overall-
The Good – smooth snowboarding with nice controls, nice difficulty, kool characters, great music, nice atmosphere and lots to do
The bad – could have done with create a boarder