The game is HUGELY different from SSX Tricky. In Tricky, you have to win events in order to increase your abilities (and get new boards).

In SSX3, You don't even have to be in an event to do that. Every trick you do, whether it be a standing flip, or a 180 turn, or a Double axle spin air with a pommel horse uber trick, you get money. This money is then used to increase your attributes. Attributes are: Speed, Spin, Edging, Balance, Toughness, Tricks, Accelleration. Each stat starts at 1.0 and can increase to 11.0. You can buy increases in lots of 5 and only 5 lots (.2 of a point) at a time (for instance, you can buy up Tricks from 1.0 to 2.0, but not 3.0). Each set of 5 lots costs a specific amount, usually in multiples of $250. 1.0 to 2.0 is (5* $250 = $1250). 2.0 to3.0 is (5* $500 = $2500). And so on. These attributes are you main concern in the game.

You also get access to boards, outfits, and even some weird stuff. They do nothing for the actual play of the game, and are merely cosmetic. For instance, recently, I bought a new board that looks like a skateboard, while wearing ripped jeans with a halo over my pumpkin head mask. It's all cosmetic. Customize to your hearts content.

The actual game: Very VERY little load times. If you wanted, you can ski from the top of the mountain (peak 3) all the way to the very bottom of the mountain (bottom of peak 1) without so much as a single load time other than the initial (this is the 30+ minute ride I was telling you about...maybe even closer to an hour+). You will have small load times when you do the events, but instead of choosing your events from a main screen, you ski into them. There are road signs pointing towards Big Air (just as it sounds), Slopestyle (Show-off), Race (uh...race), and Freestyle (have fun without competition). You choose your path in a seamless method of moving along on the slope.

Finally, there are small extras in it. Small snowflakes that are worth cash ($500 on peak 1, $1000 on peak 2, $2000 on peak 3), and there are a set number of them in each section of the game. Your job, is to collect all of them...somehow. Also, if you move close enough to them (as well as any of the multipliers) you'll "suck" it in. (Kinda like in Kingdom Hearts) giving you a bit more room to manuever without worrying about having to be dead on. There are also things called Big Challenges, which are big green lights that only appear on Freestyle. You do these challenges (which vary from course to course) and get money when completed. If you can't complete them (say you miss an object) it'll ask you if you want to restart.

One more thing: There are TONS of special extras. For instance, there's a supply of Action Figures you can buy, and if you get an entire set you unlock another rider's skin (like, Brodi, or Eddie or Luther). Same with Posters, Trading Cards, etc.

Wow. Just wow. We have a monster in our hands here and I could tell as soon as I opened the plastic wrapping around the case that I was holding something special. This game is on a whole different level than SSX and SSX Tricky.

The first thing you'll notice after you pop in the disk, besides the EXTREMELY long opening movie and the THX screen, is a new, improved, and very clean interface. There's Single Event, Conquer the Mountain, Multiplay, Options, and Online mode. Single Event is pretty much exactly like the first two games. You pick an event you want to do, and you do it. There's no character building involved. You just jump in and play.

Conquer the Mountain is where all of the fun is at. It completely blows away the other two SSX games in just about every category. Instead of picking an event to do, you instead snowboard to it or you can take a lift to its general area. In order to save your game, you have to enter the lodge, which is where you buy attributes, gear, and many other things. "Wait a second", you say. "Did you say you BUY attributes?! That's crazy talk!" Believe me, I was just as surprised as you are. Instead of the tried-and-true method of earning medals in order to earn attribute credits, you now have to win races in order to get prize money. Using the money you win, you can buy just about anything. Posters, toys, attributes, hats, mittens, snowboards, and even new characters. Included in SSX3 is every character from past SSX games as well as a lot of new ones.

Unfortunately, you shouldn't get your hopes up. All that you get are the models. You can't change their outfits at all and you can't use their regular tricks. Also, they don't have voices. However, it was pretty funny to see Luther twirl around on his board like Kaori. I was laughing pretty hard when I saw that. Another thing you can buy are tricks, so if you don't like what you character does for tricks, you can just buy different ones and equip them. Don't want Kaori to spin around on her board? Okay, give her Psymon's signature move instead and watch the insanity ensue.

Aside from races and trick competitions, which are like the old Showoffs but far more interesting, are a variety of other challenges that you can do. These challenges get you "exploration medals", which are much like regular medals. There are two parts of getting an exploration medal: collectibles and BIG challenges. The collectibles are snowflakes scattered around each of the courses that you can collect. If you collect one of them, not only is it one less that you need to find, but you also get a monetary award. The BIG challenges are just what they sound like. BIG. Some of them are kind of easy while others are insanely difficult. The gate ones in particular were very, very frustrating. Did you miss the 60th gate of the course? Too bad, you have to start all over.

With singleplayer mode out of the way, I'll move on to Multiplayer modes. They're terrible. Awful. Bad. Umm... not good. It's okay if you're playing a seasoned SSX veteran, but if you play with anybody else it's going to be booooring. Details, details... where should I start? Okay, first of all, there's no freeride mode in multiplay. You have trick competitions and races, and the trick competitions all have timers. There are also no tutorials in the entire game other than Conquer the Mountain (which just explains how that particular mode works), so newbies are going to have a very, very difficult time learning how to play the game. The manual is barely helpful at all, and leaves many things out that should be explained a bit more elaborately.

Also missing from SSX is a good replay mode. In previous SSX games, you could switch between players or computer players as you pleased. In previous games, if I kept losing at a particular track, I would go into replay and follow the computer that came into first place. Or say a newbie was really proud of doing a big trick and wanted to show you. Just switch to his player and press X. Now, you can only follow player 1. Also, switching to different parts of a replay is incredibly difficult, and all of the freestyle events only have one place where you can fast-forward to: the finish line. Online mode is also pretty awful, and when EA says "Head to Head", they mean it.