There are areas where the snow extends for miles as you surge down the slopes, through trees and under rocks with a cold biting wind blowing in your ears and snowflakes pitter-pattering your body like tiny bombs. Then there are those where the course narrows to almost metres wide with quick, sharp and daring turns displaying themselves in an instant giving you only moments to react, yet somehow you make it.

It's fair to say that as you progress the various courses, navigate the deep turns, duck under logs and perform death-defying jumps that the game is extremely fun and rarely repetitive. SS may not be the first Snowboarding game but it is easily the best and anybody that plays if for even just a few moments should be able to see that.

Of course the multiplayer mode allows you to race against friends and that adds a lot of fun to the game, knowing that you're not the only rubbish player doing the business. Just a pity it lacks support for M-Player, The Zone or even GameSpy as this game has mountain loads of potential in that area. Single Play provides, practise, arcade or championship modes, all are about the same and involve racing against the clock as well as people.

Snow has never looked so.. er.. white?

Whether you race when it's day and the solar flare warms the surface of your face, at dawn then the red and orange glow makes the white look more like tea or at night when special lights make the course stand out against the wide open white plains, SS is immaculately good looking. With 24Bit textures, realistic shadows and lighting, amazingly high detail on models and buildings, SS manages to surpass all others in the visual stakes

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