When I was younger I loved to play Snowboard Kids, but then the Tony Hawk's series came into my life and had a grip on my childhood and teenage years. I played some Matt Hoffmann's Pro BMX and Shaun White Snowboarding back in the day and eventually picked up Steep in like 2016? But I did not like the more "realistic" approach, as I obviously prefered the more acardy sports games much more.
And so for all these years I completly skipped over the SSX series, thinking it was just another semi-realistic EA-sports series from the early 2000s. Boy was I wrong. I would have loved these games so much as kid! They are right up my alley. I have only played SSX 3 thus far but I already love the artstyle, the character designs, the trick system. Many of the levels are incredibly well designed and hold up so, so well even to this day. I especially adore how many lines the game allows you to ride, even if you seemingly go down a wrong path here and there. The soundtrack is absolutely peak and has a much bigger variation in genre than I would have expected.
I can not describe how much I hate the fact, that I missed out on this amazing series for this long, as I am certain that it would have been one of my staple childhood games back in the day. This might even end up in my top 10 games of all time (something I did not say or think of any game in a very long time). I am looking forward to completing the game now and will probably check out Tricky or On Tour after.