SSX On Tour [PSP]

Just when you thought the PSP couldn't possibly get another racing game, along comes SSX On Tour. Although this snowboarding series isn't just racing -- there's a fair amount of Tony Hawk-style trickery even in the flat-out races -- it's all about speed, control, and watching impressive visuals flash by. In other words, it's based on pretty much the same premise as any latter day racing game.

This PSP version is actually pretty different from the recently released versions for your living room console system. It shares the same funky front end artwork and sensibility, and the same great soundtrack with its eclectic mix of old classics, skater punk, and alternative rock. But otherwise, it's got a completely different single player progression, different courses, different controls, and different challenges.

In the tour mode, you advance up a set of bewildering sign posts. There's one for each type of race, and one for whether you're using a snowboard or the new skis. Since skis don't seem to have any substantial gameplay effect, and since there are only about a half-dozen courses, a lot of the tour feels like padding.

As you win races, the character advancement dribbles out different outfits or boards that add a point or two to your stats. Once you've accumulated enough equipment, you can swap it out to tweak your performance. Otherwise, you're just assigned the occasional +1 speed or +1 edging at certain points. There's very little sense of building up your character. Instead, SSX On Tour pretty much just improves him for you.

There are also challenges separate from the tour races. Some of these are incredibly frustrating, often requiring a mix of meticulous skill and blind luck. Trying to aim a jump just right to go through a hoop can be an exercise in wanting to rip the little nub out of your PSP. And trying to get to the bottom of a difficult uneven course without wiping out is almost like tossing a coin. Short of memorizing a specific route, you might as well just close your eyes and pray. Fortunately, many of the challenges are short, so you can retry them with a minimum of fuss.

But the most important part of SSX On Tour is the actual snowboarding, which is pretty faithful to the non-PSP games in the series. The trick system is a throwback to the earlier games, requiring button combos and careful management of your boost gauge.

There are two control options, with a more advanced scheme that relies on the analog nub to pre-wind and spin your tricks. This gives you an enormous advantage once you master it; in fact, we can't imagine getting past certain challenges with the default scheme. But the problem with both control set-ups is that the tiny nub is so sensitive that it's difficult to do any precision steering. This makes it really hard to grind rails or fallen trees since you have to hit the sweet spot to start your grind.

But these complaints are pretty quickly forgotten once you're sliding down the mountain. This PSP version of SSX looks absolutely lovely. It's not crammed with as much detail as a game like Wipeout Pure, but it's got loads of lush atmosphere and lighting. A nighttime course called Blind Justice is one of the most beautiful things the PSP has done so far.

But one disadvantage on the PSP is that since the camera is in tighter, you can get visually disoriented when you're caught close to a wall or turned the wrong way up a slope (sometimes the camera will actually clip through a wall). It's particularly difficult to get your bearings on tight switchbacks, often because there aren't sufficient visual cues pointing you which way to go. The tracks also don't have quite as much freedom as you get on other versions of SSX; a lot of times, you'll be rudely reset onto the track without warning.

One clear advantage of the PSP version is the multiplayer support. This is the only version of SSX that allows for multiplayer games aside from split screen. You can choose any track and any race type for up to four players in ad-hoc games.

All told, this may not be as great a game as its bigger brothers, but it's still a feather in the PSP's cap and another great example of just how much this powerful piece of hardware can do.