Introduction: SSX seems to have a habit of being wheeled out by EA early in a consoles life cycle. It was thought by many to be one of the best launch titles on the PS2. And now on the Wii, still just starting to make its way in the world, we have SSX Blur. This hotly anticipated game looks to combine its strong snowboarding heritage with the Wii's newly endowed controllers to deliver a more flexible and free playing experience.

GamePlay: As will be familiar to those of you that have already come across SSX on other platforms, the game progresses as you work your way through three different mountain peaks. Each peak's unique landscape offers particular challenges and opportunities. You must conquer a variety of trick and race events before you can unlock the next mountain.

The crux of the game's success relies heavily on their implementation of the Wii's much talked about controllers. This is not a port of an old game with the controls bolted on. Rather, it is a new outing for SSX made specifically for the Wii. Therefore it has every chance of making good use of those controllers. The Nun-chuck is used to direct your snowboarder and perform jumps. This can be achieved either by using gestures or the analogue stick and A button. Either method seems to work pretty well, although there is certainly a much smoother sense of control provided by the gestures. The Wii-mote controls the in air trickery. This is largely gesture based and there are no button or stick alternatives. The different moves are triggered by waving or tilting the controller whilst you are in the air. Advanced tricks can be achieved by executing a particular gesture. These super moves each have their signature motion, such as circles or zig-zags, which make them a bit easier to remember.

Control: This control method is a real love it or hate it affair. Personally, I never really got comfortable with it. It seemed like overkill to tie every trick to a different gesture combination. The majority of the time I ended up simply waving the controller around in the air hoping to hit upon a good trick by chance. It felt a bit like the scribbling method in Meteos, where you can achieve a good score by repeatedly scribbling left and right across the screen with the stylus. This approach was surprisingly successful method score wise, although not so much on the enjoyment front. Similarly, these loose waggle controls don't result in so much fun in SSX either.

Now, we have to admit that given enough time and practice the controls do get a lot easier and start to make more sense. You really need to invest a good amount of time simply flailing around. But at some point it does click and start to come together. The problem is that the complexity of this memorisation contradicts their aim of making the game more accessible for the Wii. It could be that the very thing that EA are trying to use to lever the Wii market is the very thing that will trip them up and make their game less accessible to many of those casual gamers. It is just so hard.

Graphics: Graphically, the game looks the part. Although things are not a million miles away from the Gamecube outing that was now a few years ago, it certainly does its job. The mountains genuinely feel snow capped, and they recreate that favourite trick of snowboard games of carving your way through a pristine mountainside. Things stay at a pretty steady frame rate, as you would expect from EA, and it is nice to see that widescreen is supported this time around.

Sound & Music: Sound wise the game fairly chugs along with the grooves of Junkie XL. Although it was an interesting move to go with one main artist for the soundtrack, the lack of the variety that a changing line up gives means that the game feels more sedate. The changing tunes of the other versions, and other EA titles in general, give proceedings a bit of a radio or broadcast feel that gave more energy and excitement to the on screen action. Apart from that the general effects and voice work is well up to standard.

Final Comments: Overall this game is going to appeal to those that loved the series already and are willing to persevere at the controls. Although it has all the right component parts, the game doesn't really gel for me. For some reason it wasn't a case where the sum of the parts added up to more than the whole. There is plenty to entertain and enjoy here, just maybe not for those of us who are looking for a more twitch gaming, pick up put down playing experience.

Pro: Imaginative use of Wii controls
Con: Over complex controls can take time to learn.
Final Score: 7.0

Reviewed by: Douglas Andrews